Columbia NFWCO Project Leader Tracy Hill and Fish Biologist Nick Utrup recently attended the national American Fisheries Society (AFS) meeting, held in San Francisco. 

Every year, AFS designs a theme based on the location of the meeting.  The theme for San Francisco was “Thinking Downstream and Downcurrent” with many talks and symposia related to urbanization issues.  This years meeting also hosted a symposium on North American Sturgeon which was of special interest to the Columbia NFWCO. 

For this symposium, Nick gave an oral presentation titled “Dispersal of Hatchery Reared Pallid Sturgeon in the Lower Missouri River”.  Nick also presented a poster titled “Population Characteristics of Shovelnose Sturgeon in the Lower Missouri River”.  Tracy presented a poster prepared by Andy Plauck titled “Evaluation of a Range-Wide Monitoring Program and Recapture Success of Hatchery Reared Pallid Sturgeon in the Lower Missouri River”.

Columbia NFWCO gained important insight into other sturgeon related issues around the country that will improve their ability to make critical decisions for sturgeon.  Fostering working relationships, along with sharing information, with colleagues across the country through these types of meetings is essential to accelerating our ability to recover imperiled species.