Pallid Sturgeon Released Into Missouri River In Effort To Save The Endangered Species

Tim Schroeder is a little bleary-eyed.

He left South Dakota before sunrise and drove 10 hours straight to Missouri — with a few hundred endangered fish in the back of his pickup truck.

Schroeder, who works for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was tasked with delivering a load of pallid sturgeon to biologists in St. Charles. It’s part of a long-running partnership between federal scientists and the Missouri Department of Conservation to jumpstart recovery of the endangered fish species, which was once common in the Missouri and lower Mississippi rivers.

“They’re an ancient dinosaur-lookin’ creature with a triangle nose,” Schroeder said, gently cupping the fish in his hand.

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/pallid-sturgeon-released-missouri-river-effort-save-endangered-species