08-08-2008, 11:10 AM
BILLINGS - Until last week, nobody could remember the last sighting of a big pallid sturgeon in the Bighorn River or the Yellowstone River east of Billings.
Biologists estimated that no more than 230 pallid sturgeon lived in the entire state - a few of them in the Missouri River above Fort Peck Reservoir and some in the easternmost stretches of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers. Though pallid sturgeon preceded mankind in this part of Montana, they have been absent for decades - possibly four or five decades.
Last week that all changed. A trio of fisheries technicians from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks in Billings carefully released 50 healthy 14- to 18-inch yearling pallid sturgeon below the Huntley Diversion Dam and 50 near Two Leggins on the Bighorn River. Crews also put 1,650 eight-inch sturgeon in the Yellowstone River near Forsyth, Fallon and Intake and a truckload of inch-long fry in the Missouri River above Fort Peck Reservoir.
The biggest of the prehistoric-looking fish came from a federal hatchery in Garrison, N.D., where biologists are trying to save the species from extinction. Some of the smaller sturgeon were reared in a pond at a FWP hatchery near Miles City.
Last week, technicians Nate McClenning, Earl Radonski and Andy Godtel, all from the FWP office in Billings, joined other state and federal officials at Garrison to get ready for the massive transplant. The biggest fish, all headed to Huntley and Two Leggins, were surgically fitted with radio transmitters the size of a long pencil eraser. A foot-long antenna that resembles a piece of monofilament fishing line, hangs beneath the fish. Over the course of the next year, technicians and biologists with special radio receivers will follow the transmitters electronically.
The fish also were fitted with rice-grain sized passive integrated transponders, or PIT tag microchips, with serial numbers that they will carry for life.
By following the fish, biologists and fisheries technicians hope to learn where they go and how they react to changing conditions, including water temperature, flow and turbidity.
Pallid sturgeons are armored with rows of bony plates - instead of scales - that give them a shark-like appearance often described as "prehistoric looking." They live as long as 50 years and can grow to 80 pounds and five feet long. A fleshy mouth and four barbells protrude from the bottom of their large, flat, triangular snout.
Pallid sturgeon are tangentially related to the more common shovelnose sturgeon, which grow only to about five pounds.
By all accounts, pallid sturgeon lived throughout the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and their major tributaries well before Lewis and Clark explored the West - possibly even before mankind migrated to North America. They are adapted to live at the bottom of large, swift, silty rivers, where they hang out around sand and gravel bars.
Their decline is attributed to man's efforts to clean up, dam and channel the rivers. Water released from dams is clear and cold and lacks such flow patterns as spring flooding, which washes vegetation, dirt and food into the rivers. All of those factors are appreciated by people, but are detrimental to pallid sturgeon.
Biologists believe that, after pallid sturgeon eggs hatch, they drift in the river for several days before they settle into the river bottom to grow. Many of them drift into lakes backed up by river dams and perish in the inhospitable environment there. As a result, fisheries biologists have documented no recruitment - or new naturally reproduced fish - for more than 30 years in Montana. To make things more difficult, pallid sturgeon may not spawn until they are 15 years old. After that, they may go three to five years between spawnings.
Biologists chose the Yellowstone and Bighorn rivers in south central Montana for transplanting because, if the sturgeon spawn, their hatched eggs - or larvae - will have literally hundreds of miles to drift before they encounter the first lake in North Dakota. They are optimistic that some of the larvae will settle into the river bottom, where they can grow and reproduce naturally in the future.
Eggs for the hatchery project were taken from wild pallid sturgeon captured in the Missouri and lower Yellowstone rivers. They were hatched and reared in carefully controlled circumstances that mimic their preferred habitat.
Pallid sturgeon are voracious eaters, feeding on aquatic insects, mollusks and small fish, many of which they dig out of the river mud with their shovel-shaped snout. As a result, anglers may occasionally catch one.
Pallid sturgeon have been on the federal endangered species list since 1990, however, so anglers may not keep, kill, harm or harass them. Protocol calls for anglers who accidentally catch a pallid sturgeon to gently release it into the water. A phone call to report information on the length, general condition and exact location of the fish is appreciated by fisheries technicians in Billings.
For photos of technicians working with pallid sturgeon and releasing them near Huntley, log on to http://www.bsw.net/pallids.
Biologists estimated that no more than 230 pallid sturgeon lived in the entire state - a few of them in the Missouri River above Fort Peck Reservoir and some in the easternmost stretches of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers. Though pallid sturgeon preceded mankind in this part of Montana, they have been absent for decades - possibly four or five decades.
Last week that all changed. A trio of fisheries technicians from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks in Billings carefully released 50 healthy 14- to 18-inch yearling pallid sturgeon below the Huntley Diversion Dam and 50 near Two Leggins on the Bighorn River. Crews also put 1,650 eight-inch sturgeon in the Yellowstone River near Forsyth, Fallon and Intake and a truckload of inch-long fry in the Missouri River above Fort Peck Reservoir.
The biggest of the prehistoric-looking fish came from a federal hatchery in Garrison, N.D., where biologists are trying to save the species from extinction. Some of the smaller sturgeon were reared in a pond at a FWP hatchery near Miles City.
Last week, technicians Nate McClenning, Earl Radonski and Andy Godtel, all from the FWP office in Billings, joined other state and federal officials at Garrison to get ready for the massive transplant. The biggest fish, all headed to Huntley and Two Leggins, were surgically fitted with radio transmitters the size of a long pencil eraser. A foot-long antenna that resembles a piece of monofilament fishing line, hangs beneath the fish. Over the course of the next year, technicians and biologists with special radio receivers will follow the transmitters electronically.
The fish also were fitted with rice-grain sized passive integrated transponders, or PIT tag microchips, with serial numbers that they will carry for life.
By following the fish, biologists and fisheries technicians hope to learn where they go and how they react to changing conditions, including water temperature, flow and turbidity.
Pallid sturgeons are armored with rows of bony plates - instead of scales - that give them a shark-like appearance often described as "prehistoric looking." They live as long as 50 years and can grow to 80 pounds and five feet long. A fleshy mouth and four barbells protrude from the bottom of their large, flat, triangular snout.
Pallid sturgeon are tangentially related to the more common shovelnose sturgeon, which grow only to about five pounds.
By all accounts, pallid sturgeon lived throughout the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and their major tributaries well before Lewis and Clark explored the West - possibly even before mankind migrated to North America. They are adapted to live at the bottom of large, swift, silty rivers, where they hang out around sand and gravel bars.
Their decline is attributed to man's efforts to clean up, dam and channel the rivers. Water released from dams is clear and cold and lacks such flow patterns as spring flooding, which washes vegetation, dirt and food into the rivers. All of those factors are appreciated by people, but are detrimental to pallid sturgeon.
Biologists believe that, after pallid sturgeon eggs hatch, they drift in the river for several days before they settle into the river bottom to grow. Many of them drift into lakes backed up by river dams and perish in the inhospitable environment there. As a result, fisheries biologists have documented no recruitment - or new naturally reproduced fish - for more than 30 years in Montana. To make things more difficult, pallid sturgeon may not spawn until they are 15 years old. After that, they may go three to five years between spawnings.
Biologists chose the Yellowstone and Bighorn rivers in south central Montana for transplanting because, if the sturgeon spawn, their hatched eggs - or larvae - will have literally hundreds of miles to drift before they encounter the first lake in North Dakota. They are optimistic that some of the larvae will settle into the river bottom, where they can grow and reproduce naturally in the future.
Eggs for the hatchery project were taken from wild pallid sturgeon captured in the Missouri and lower Yellowstone rivers. They were hatched and reared in carefully controlled circumstances that mimic their preferred habitat.
Pallid sturgeon are voracious eaters, feeding on aquatic insects, mollusks and small fish, many of which they dig out of the river mud with their shovel-shaped snout. As a result, anglers may occasionally catch one.
Pallid sturgeon have been on the federal endangered species list since 1990, however, so anglers may not keep, kill, harm or harass them. Protocol calls for anglers who accidentally catch a pallid sturgeon to gently release it into the water. A phone call to report information on the length, general condition and exact location of the fish is appreciated by fisheries technicians in Billings.
For photos of technicians working with pallid sturgeon and releasing them near Huntley, log on to http://www.bsw.net/pallids.