OutdoorNebraska

12 Nebraskaland • December 2019 By Melissa J. Panella THREATENED AND ENDANGERED: THE PALLID STURGEON When I was a kid, my dad would often take my younger sister and me fishing on weekends. We enjoyed the time together outdoors, but I think my mom also appreciated the small break from two active little girls who kept her very busy. Those days as I would try to be patient and wait for the cue of my bobber to dip below the water's surface, my mind would wander. I would dig my feet into the earth, look for interesting rocks or insects, listen to the birds, and soak up the sun, then suddenly remember I had better check my "pole." I didn't want to miss my fish! We had fun, but at the same time, neither my sister nor I were ever very fond of putting worms on our hooks. Years later I would put more nightcrawlers on fish hooks in one day than I had ever done in all of my childhood fishing trips. I had the chance to join a crew of fisheries biologists for the annual monitoring and broodstock collection of pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus). We traveled by boat on a stretch of stream near the Platte-Missouri River confluence to check multiple 200-feet trotlines and go through loads of earthworms while rebaiting 40 hooks per line. We were in search of pallid sturgeon, not for recreation, but for scientific and conservation reasons. That's not to say that it wasn't also an exciting way to spend the day. Our primary objectives were to survey for and monitor the pallid sturgeon as part of a project working toward recovering its population. If we found a pallid sturgeon, we would quickly measure it, scan it for an electronic PIT tag used for monitoring growth and survival, inject a tag if it did not have one yet, and if the fish was large enough, we would collect it to go to a hatchery for breeding purposes. Adult pallid sturgeon that are used as broodstock must meet health and size criteria; the rest are immediately returned to the river. The project is intensive and only possible because of the many volunteers, many of whom return year after year to assist. The pallid sturgeon is a federally- and state-listed endangered species. It is an ancient fish whose ancestors swam the waters of the earth during the late Cretaceous period 70 million years ago. Pallid sturgeon can swim several hundred miles in large, free-flowing rivers. In Nebraska, they depend on habitat in the Missouri and Lower Platte rivers and their tributaries. This interesting-looking fish is rare and protected, but if you would like to improve your odds of seeing a pallid sturgeon up close, be sure to visit the new Schramm Education Center in Gretna, where you may even get to touch one in a 2,200-gallon tank. While there, you can also enjoy a visit to the ponds at Schramm Park State Recreation Area and access the Platte River to find more species of fish. Melissa J. Panella is a wildlife biologist for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. PHOTO BY JOEL SARTORE IN THE FIELD

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