Pallid sturgeon

Here, Fisheries and Wildife officials from Montana discuss conservation efforts designed to increase stocks of the pallid sturgeon, Scaphrhynchus albus.  The pallid is one of some two dozen sturgeon species, most of which face a very uncertain future.  Pallids, natives of the Missouri and Mississippi River drainage systems, are similar to, albeit considerably larger than, the more common shovelnose sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus platorhynchus).  That, in itself, is proving to be a bit of a problem for the big fish.



Researchers at Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville have determined that the similarity of the pallid to the shovelnose may be helping push it toward extinction.  There is a thriving fishery for shovelnose sturgeon in Tennessee, where females are harvested for their eggs which are marketed for caviar.  The pallid sturgeon, which no longer reproduces in nature as a result of habitat alteration, is apparently also suffering from overexploitation through mistaken identity.  The researchers, in their observation of the shovelnose fishery, observed accidental by-catch of pallids.  Young individuals are virtually indistinguishable from the shovelnose, with the pale coloration typical of pallids showing up only in older fish.  Furthermore, pallids are occasionally killed in lost "ghost" nets left behind by shovelnose fishermen.

The USFWS has been asked to invoke the "Similarity of Appearance" provision allowed under the Endangered Species Act, which would shut down the shovelnose sturgeon fishery in Tennessee.  A decision is expected in September.