After having them under their care since they emerged from their eggs, the staff at the Neosho National Fish Hatchery are turning several thousand young pallid sturgeon loose in the Missouri River. These endangered fish, ranging from 11-14 inches in length, are carrying the hopes for survival of a species as they splash down into the great river.
This past week, Rod May and Melissa Cheung, along with two volunteers, hauled about 600 pallids to their new home along the Iowa/Nebraska border. From a boat ramp in Haworth Park at Bellevue, Neb., the 600 pallids were transferred to two flat bottom boats and taken down river, to the confluence of the Missouri and the Platte rivers. There staff from the Nebraska Game and Park Commission turned the young fish into the wide and muddy Missouri River.
As pallid sturgeon number shrink, programs such as this one in Neosho are believed to be the only way this endangered species will survive.
However, time alone will tell if this effort is successful.
