Carterville Fisheries Resources Office Biologist Nate Caswell holds a pallid sturgeon collected in the tailwaters of Mel Price Lock and Dam, Upper Mississippi River. USFWS photo, April 2007.

In January 2005, the St. Louis District, Army Corps of Engineers and St. Louis University hosted the first ever Conference dedicated exclusively to sturgeon species from the genus Scaphirhynchus.  This genus has three species of sturgeon, the endangered pallid sturgeon, S. albus, the endangered Alabama sturgeon, S. suttkusi, and the commercially harvested shovelnose sturgeon, S. playtorynchus.  Unlike many other sturgeon species, Scaphirhynchus sturgeon are found only in riverine environments. Corps of Engineers activities to regulate our interior river systems for navigation and flood control are thought to be major factors impacting the pallid sturgeon and Alabama sturgeon. 

The Corps hosted the Conference, entitled “Evolution, Ecology, and Management of Scaphirhynchus” to provide a forum for information sharing of recent studies regarding ecology, genetics and behavior of these sturgeon species.  The St. Louis District is in the process of developing a Pallid Sturgeon Conservation and Restoration Plan as part of the requirements of the 2000 Biological Opinion for the Corps Operation and Maintenance of the 9-Foot Navigation Channel Project.  Information gathered from the Conference will be utilized to develop the Plan based on the best available science.

In order to make the data readily available, the Journal of Applied Ichthyology agreed to publish a special publication dedicated solely to papers evolving out of the Conference.  The Fish and Wildlife Service, Marion, Illinois Ecological Services office partnered with the World Sturgeon Conservation Society, the Army Corps of Engineers and St. Louis University to provide the necessary funding for publication.  The special issue of the Journal of Applied Ichthyology (Volume 23, Issue 4) was published in August 2007.