During the week of April 28^th, crews from Columbia FRO spent several days intensively sampling the Osage River near Jefferson City, Missouri. 

Fish Biologists Wyatt Doyle and Jeff Finley, fisheries technicians Lee Erickson, Chris McLeland, Adam McDaniel, and volunteer Chris Clemens, sampled the river for four consecutive days. 

They sampled three locations within a 7-mile stretch of the Osage River beginning at the confluence with the Missouri River up to the low head dam.  They used trot lines, mono-filament gill nets, and drifted trammel nets to catch fish.

The purpose of the trip was to determine fish use of the lower Osage River relative to the Missouri River mainstem and to collect pallid sturgeon for use as brood stock for ongoing recovery efforts.

 They were surprised by the total number of lake sturgeon and blue suckers, species of special concern in the state of Missouri, collected. Excluding the fish caught at the confluence of the Osage and Missouri Rivers, a total of 74 blue suckers and 24 lake sturgeon were collected.

This is interesting and surprising because only 205 blue suckers and 21 lake sturgeon were captured in the lower 130 miles of the Missouri River throughout the entire 2006 sampling year.

Work on projects like these will allow the Columbia FRO to be at the forefront of native species protection and restoration in the Missouri River.  This project supports the Aquatic Species Conservation and Management focus area of the fisheries vision for the future.