IOWA — A federally endangered species of fish has been collected for the first time from the Des Moines River.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources said two pallid sturgeon were discovered in the lower Des Moines River as part of its annual spring sturgeon sampling effort. While sampling has been done since 2014, only shovelnose and an occasional lake sturgeon have been collected until this year.
Joe Larscheid, chief of the Iowa DNR’s Fisheries Bureau, said, “To find a pallid sturgeon was a surprise, but to find a second one in nearly the same spot a week later was truly remarkable.”
The DNR said pallid sturgeon are incredibly rare and were placed on the federal endangered species list in 1990. The population decline in the Missouri and lower Mississippi River basins has been attributed to habitat loss and fragmentation caused by dams that block spawning adults from migrating and reduce the water flow needed for larval development…