PIERRE, S.D. – State and Federal agencies are working together to implement a pallid sturgeon monitoring program throughout the Missouri River.

The Pallid Sturgeon Population Assessment Program is being developed and implemented as a result of the endangered status of the pallid sturgeon and the requirements of the 2003 Amended Missouri River Biological Opinion issued to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

"The pallid sturgeon was listed as an endangered species on Sept. 6, 1990," said Game, Fish and Parks Fisheries Reservoir Biologist Wayne Nelson-Stastny. "Efforts to recover the species on the Missouri River include restoring habitat, stocking hatchery raised fish to increase the dwindling natural population and research projects to better understand the species and reasons for its decline."

The South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks, Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, Missouri Department of Conservation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are all working cooperatively to implement a program to assess pallid sturgeon and a select group of target native species throughout the Missouri River from the Yellowstone River confluence in North Dakota to the mouth near St. Louis, Mo.

The South Dakota Department of Game Fish and Parks staff will be sampling the 59-mile stretch of the river from Gavins Point Dam to Ponca, Neb.

The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission will sample from Ponca, Neb., to the confluence of the Kansas River.

The Missouri Department of Conservation will be sampling from the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers downstream to Glasgow, Mo., and in the Kansas River upstream to the Johnson County Weir.

The USFWS will be sampling in three geographic areas of the Missouri River:

These agencies will be gathering information about wild and stocked pallid sturgeon populations, distribution, habitat usage, growth and survival in the Missouri River as well as obtain trend information on other native Missouri River species.

The U.S. Geological Survey, Columbia Environmental Research Center in Columbia Missouri, was integral to the development of the study design and sampling efforts to ensure that a statistically valid approach was used and that the Pallid Sturgeon Population Assessment Program was constructed to produce sound scientific information. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources, the University of Nebraska (Lincoln) and the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks also were important participants in the development phase of this effort.

Agency Contacts:

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