Billings Gazette Outdoor Editor
It would be awfully nice to get into the brain of a fish and find out why they do what they do. Or, if we knew fish language, we could just ask them. But unfortunately, all we can do is observe and wonder.
Radios implanted in native fish species of the Missouri River below Fort Peck Dam are providing biologists with some insights, however. And what they’ve discovered is that these fish of prairie rivers can cover a whole lot of water in a hurry.
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Blue sucker facts Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ Dave Fuller added these facts about blue suckers: * Commercial fisherman and consumers once prized the blue suckers’ palatable flesh. In 1894 and 1899 nearly 2 million pounds of blue sucker were collected in a 21 mile stretch of the Mississippi River. * Blue suckers are designed to live in large rivers with strong currents and high turbidities. They feed primarily on insects off the bottom and do not need to see to locate food. * Large females can produce over 130,000 eggs. * Blue suckers can reach ages greater than 20 years old. * Blue suckers have been designated as fish of special concern in Montana, which means it is a native fish species with limited habitat and limited numbers in the state. * You can learn more about blue suckers and other Missouri River fish species at: www.walleyesunlimited.com/adopt-fish/fishspecies.html |
Through a free, cooperative program called Missouri River Adopt-A-Fish, school students were able to track this fish through the months of April and May last year. And once the school year was done, this fish really kicked its fins into gear, according to Dave Fuller, a Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologists tracking the fish.
“It’s too bad schools aren’t in session just a bit longer in the spring,” Fuller said. “Just as the Adopt-A-Fish program starts to get really interesting, it’s time for summer break.”
When the 2003 school year ended, radioed blue suckers from the Missouri River had run up the Milk River to spawn, reacting to high, murky flows coming out of this tributary stream. Some of them swam above Glasgow.
But that was only the beginning of their travels.
“The Milk River flows receded and the blues moved back into the cold, clear Missouri River,” Fuller said. “They didn’t hang around very long. The blues headed down the Missouri all the way to its confluence with the Yellowstone. That’s 180 miles.
 Dave Fuller and a blue sucker |
“The other, Blue Sucker No. 2, went all the way up the Yellowstone to above Forsyth,” Fuller said. “That’s another 245 miles on top of the 180 from the Milk River to the confluence. After all that, they dropped back downstream again. We last located Blue Sucker No. 2 in October near the bridge at Miles City.”
Fuller said the blue suckers averaged 450 river miles traveled last year. He compared that to people driving (or swimming) from Miles City to Missoula or from Culbertson to Glacier National Park.
Two blues and four radioed shovelnose sturgeon made it up over Intake Diversion Dam last year. “From the time they left the Milk River, the blues made it to Intake in about 10 days. That’s 250 miles,” he said.
What triggers such movements? Only the blue suckers know for sure. But Fuller said the movements may simply come down to the fish’s preference for warmer, more muddy water – conditions they certainly evolved with in prairie river systems.
“They responded to a warm, turbid flow from the Milk and when that flow went down, they went into the cold waters of the Missouri below Fort Peck Dam,” Fuller said. “They simply went down those flows until they found the warm, turbid waters of the Yellowstone and went up that.”
Research being done on native species on the Missouri below Fort Peck Dam has put radios in paddlefish and pallid sturgeon, too, in addition to the blue suckers and shovelnose sturgeon.
Results like the highly migratory nature of the fish and what triggers those movements has been an eye-opener for biologists.
“There has been very little work done on blue suckers in the past,” Fuller said. “This is some new, interesting stuff we’re learning. Nobody knew how migratory they were. And shovelnose did the same thing.”
Missouri River Adopt-A-Fish is a free Internet-based program that allows schools to learn how the study is being done and follow the results of radio-implanted blue suckers, shovelnose sturgeon, paddlefish and pallid sturgeon.
Adopt-A-Fish classes can adopt and name two fish and check up on their weekly movements in April and May. The program also has suggested curriculum for teachers, information on the Missouri River and the fish that live in the river, plus other information of interest to teachers and students.
It’s a cooperative project of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Billings Gazette and Walleyes Unlimited. FWP’s Fuller, USGS’ Pat Braaten and USFWS’ Wade King are the lead biologists.
Updates will be published each week in the Gazette through the end of May. To learn more about the program or sign up by going to www.walleyesunlimited.com and clicking on the Missouri River Adopt-A-Fish button.
Mark Henckel is the outdoor editor of The Billings Gazette. His columns appear Thursdays and Sundays. He can be contacted at 657-1395 or at henckel@billingsgazette.com.