This stocking is only a temporary measure to ensure we have some fish in the river while we are attempting to improve its habitat. Historically, pallid sturgeons were found in the Yellowstone, Missouri and Mississippi Rivers and their larger tributaries from Montana to the Gulf of Mexico. As recently as the 1940s, the upper Missouri River may have contained up to several hundred pallid sturgeons per mile. However, the creation of dams, channelization of the rivers and other actions have adversely affected all 3,350 miles of pallid sturgeon habitat. They prefer large rivers with a diversity of depths and velocities formed by braided channels, sand bars, sand flats, eroding banks and gravel bars.
Pallid sturgeons look like they belong with the dinosaurs.
They have bony plates instead of scales, and a reptile-like tail. The fish, grayish-white on the back and sides, can weigh up to 80 pounds and reach six feet in length. Their mouth is toothless and positioned under the snout for sucking small fishes and invertebrates from the river bottom. A long-lived species, some individuals may reach 50 years of age, but females don't reproduce until at least 15 years of age, and may spawn only once every ten years. In June 1997, Gavins Point National Fish Hatchery at Yankton, SD. was successful after nine years of attempts by federal and state biologists to spawn pallid sturgeons from the upper Missouri River.