Author Archives: Kimberly Chojnacki

The upstream migration of female pallid sturgeon PLS09-011 continued on April 18th and 19th (see previous posts Going, going…).  However, she disappeared for the next few days until being located more than 50 miles downriver from her previous location on … Continue reading →

Female pallid sturgeon PLS09-011 was originally implanted with telemetry devices in the fall of 2009 as a non-reproductive female. She was targeted for recapture and determined to be in reproductive condition in March, 2012 (see the previous post Meet the … Continue reading →

Female pallid sturgeon PLS11-007 was initially implanted with telemetry devices in April, 2011. She was in non-reproductive condition with small white eggs, indicating that she may be nearing reproductive condition. From April until mid-September 2011, she was relocated on 15 occasions, in areas … Continue reading →

 By all accounts 2012 is shaping up to be a very warm spring. Water temperatures in the Lower Missouri River are far ahead of normal (see graph below). In most years we might see pallid sturgeon spawning temperatures (about 16-22 … Continue reading →

Female pallid sturgeon PLS11-019 was implanted in spring 2011 in non-reproductive condition, but with “small white eggs.” Over the course of a year, those small eggs matured into large dark grey or black eggs. In March 2012, she was targeted … Continue reading →

Pallid sturgeon biologists have long hypothesized that the areas where tributaries come together and flow into the Missouri River may hold significant value to species (see previous post “Where Are You When I’m Not Looking”).  The USGS Comprehensive Sturgeon Research Project … Continue reading →

The Lower Missouri River is a large river.  With over 800 miles of river to track, our boats cannot be everywhere, watching every tagged sturgeon at the same time.  A handful of reproductive females with black eggs were tagged with … Continue reading →

Last week more than 100 maturing pallid sturgeon made the trip from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Gavins Point National Fish Hatchery (http://www.fws.gov/gavinspoint/) in Yankton, South Dakota to Columbia, Missouri.  Nearly nine years ago, in the spring of 2002, … Continue reading →

Scientists from the Institute for Biology of Inland Waters (IBIW), Russian Academy of Sciences, in Borok, Russia visited the USGS Columbia Environmental Research Center (CERC) from October 16-30, 2011.  The visit was part of an ongoing exchange of scientists between the … Continue reading →

During the first week of November, four adult pallid sturgeon with telemetry tags were recaptured by field crews using drifted trammel nets.  It was a very good week.  Field crews sent the data from each recapture back to the USGS … Continue reading →