Receiving the Baton In the Anthropocene Era: Results From Four Decades of Missouri Lake Sturgeon Restoration

Levi Umland

PhD Student, University of Missouri

Abstract

In Missouri, Lake Sturgeon were listed as a state endangered species in 1974, and reintroduction efforts began in 1984. In 2022, a federal court ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to evaluate if Lake Sturgeon should be listed under the federal Endangered Species Act by 2024. However, in April of 2024, Lake Sturgeon were deemed ineligible for listing as federally endangered. Identifying suitable spawning sites and documenting successful hatching have been recognized as some of the most important next steps to recovering this endemic species in Missouri. From 2015 to 2020, telemetry was used to document spring habitat selection in these Missouri River tributaries. In spring of 2024, at an inoperable low head lock and dam of a tributary of the Missouri River, twenty-two adult Lake Sturgeon were captured, and Floy tagged during the first documented multi-day spawning aggregation within the Missouri River Watershed. These data provided an opportunity to compare modeled habitat selection from 2015 to 2020, with a documented spawning location. In addition, sonar imagery suggested well over 100 Lake Sturgeon to be present during this spawning event, although previous research suggested this reach had limited spawning habitat. We measured and quantified the habitat characteristics of this site during the spawning event to provide data for analyses and comparison of suspected adequate spawning habitat for southern range Lake Sturgeon. In addition, seventeen of the first documented wild origin larval Lake Sturgeon were captured in larval drift nets one hundred and seventy-three meters downstream; marking a phenomenal conservation success story from four decades of Lake Sturgeon restoration efforts.