During a sampling of fish in the Des Moines River near Ottumwa, Iowa, the state’s Department of Natural Resources was thrilled to discover a couple of very large, very welcome inhabitants.
Local station WHO 13 News reported in late August that annual sturgeon sampling turned up a pair of pallid sturgeons, one of the rarest freshwater fish species in the United States. Previous efforts had only ever turned up shovelnose and lake sturgeon. This is the first time since the sampling efforts began in 2014 that the federally endangered fish has been found at the site.
Joe Larscheid, who leads Iowa’s Fisheries Bureau, explained the significance of the sighting. “To find a pallid sturgeon was a surprise,” he said in a DNR news release, “but to find a second one in nearly the same spot a week later was truly remarkable.”
Pallid sturgeon have been around since the days dinosaurs walked the earth, but modern life has taken its toll. Extensive habitat destruction and fragmentation caused by dam construction and more have left them on the brink of extinction. Compounding the problem is how slowly they reproduce. A female typically reaches reproductive age between 15 and 20 years old.
A fully-grown pallid sturgeon can reach up to six feet in length and up to 80 pounds in weight, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Like other sturgeon, their skeletons are made of cartilage — similar to sharks — rather than bones. They prefer deep, large rivers like the Missouri and Mississippi, and contribute to the health of those ecosystems as large predators, keeping prey populations under control.
It’s possible that this discovery in Iowa was a result of local recovery efforts in nearby Missouri. The Show Me state has made efforts to restore the pallid sturgeon to its waters.
It’s always encouraging when a rare or previously missing species appears unexpectedly, and it’s crucial to capitalize on those sightings. For the pallid sturgeon, it highlights the importance of staying up to date on the issues, as the fish resembles more common species that anglers can legally catch. If caught, a pallid sturgeon must be returned to the water unharmed.
Mark Flammang, a fisheries biologist with Iowa’s DNR, was excited about the recent finds but acknowledged the hard work ahead: “This is a positive milestone but does not mean the species has recovered.”
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