Iowa officials were stunned after making a surprising and unlikely discovery in the Des Moines River.
Last spring, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources found two pale sturgeon in the river within a week, the Des Moines Register reported.
This fish is native to the central United States and is one of the rarest fish species in North America. With only a few populations remaining, they have been listed as a federally endangered species since 1990.
Sturgeon is one of the most widely traded fish species worldwide, and its eggs are used to make caviar. Overfishing of this delicacy, combined with habitat loss, has brought the pallid sturgeon to the brink of extinction and made sightings rare.
“We didn’t even notice the pale sturgeon because we didn’t expect to find it in the Des Moines River,” DNR fisheries biologist Mark Flammang revealed, according to the Register.
The discovery is part of an annual spring sturgeon sampling effort that has been underway since at least 2014. Flamand said the two fish, which may be decades old, are healthy and in good condition. Sturgeons can live up to 150 years, so the pair could live in the water for many years.
What makes this discovery even more remarkable is the location where it occurred and the nature of the fish. According to Flammang, pale sturgeon are more common in the Missouri River than in the Mississippi River waters north of St. Louis.
Both birds are also not bred in hatcheries, which could help restore their populations.
“Not only did we catch a federally endangered fish that we didn’t expect, but it was naturally occurring, so it’s kind of a trifecta,” Flamand said, according to the Register. “You can’t get rarer than that.”
The state Department of Natural Resources collected tissue samples from the sturgeons and returned them to the river in the hope they would serve as a reference for fishermen.
“Anglers must know that they must return these fish to the river immediately,” Flamand concluded.
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