Columbia Fishery Office Biologist Geno Adams holds a paddlefish collected in the Lower Missouri River. - USFWS photo

Biologists Joanne Grady and Nick Utrup completed a 10-year summary report on the national paddlefish stock assessment project for the Mississippi Interstate Cooperative Resource Association. Biologists from state and federal agencies in 22 states have been stocking, sampling and tagging paddlefish in large rivers throughout the Mississippi River Basin since 1995. This is the largest fish tagging project of its kind in the world. Over 1.5 million hatchery reared paddlefish and 20,000 wild adult paddlefish have been tagged with coded wire tags. While the majority of recaptured fish were located in the same areas in which they were originally tagged, movements of fish were identified within and between the major river systems. Recaptures of 2,100 fish occurred during 10 years.

This information will be used by project biologists in each of the major river systems to develop population estimates and interjurisdictional management plans for paddlefish. The Columbia and Carterville FROs have aided MICRA with project oversight, tag processing and database management since 1997.