far up the Yellowstone
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks
We can finally take Einstein, Ocean or Dory (or, simply, Blue Sucker No. 2) off the back of the milk carton. She has been found.
It’s one of the amazing stories of Missouri River Adopt-A-Fish, which allows classrooms to follow radio-implanted native fish species and see where they go. In terms of going, Blue Sucker No. 2 is hard to beat.
We hadn’t been able to relocate her since last November. However, this past week, Ryan Lott went for a plane ride outside of our normal study area on the Lower Missouri River and Lower Yellowstone to see where some of our “missing” fish might be.
He and the pilot jumped in the Super Cub at Miles City with the antenna attached to the strut. They took off and flew above the Yellowstone River to Glendive, up to Forsyth, and back to Miles City. After a long bumpy flight, they landed. Ryan stumbled out, kissed the ground and took several deep breaths.
Once he regained his composure, he looked up the codes of the fish that were relocated and sure enough, one of these fish was Blue Sucker No. 2. She was just below the Fallon Bridge, at about river mile 120 on the Yellowstone.
This fish was implanted with her radio transmitter at the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers in September, 2003. She was first relocated at Wolf Point the following spring. By mid-May, this fish was over 50 miles up the Milk River. Then she exited the Milk in late May, swam 180 miles down the Missouri, 71 miles up the Yellowstone and went over the Intake Diversion Dam sometime in mid-June.
On one of our aerial surveys in October, she was found at river mile 123 of the Yellowstone and then by early November she was back at the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone where she was originally implanted the previous year.
All tallied, this fish swam at least 700 miles this past year and we’re not sure just how far up the Milk or Yellowstone rivers she went.
This year, Blue No. 2 is, for now, skipping the Missouri and Milk migrations. She headed straight up the Yellowstone sometime between last November and late March.
What we are learning from these species of special concern is that individual blue suckers have a tendency to return to certain areas at certain times of the year or exhibit what biologists call “site fidelity”.
Some blue suckers will remain in certain areas of the Missouri River all year long. Most spend early spring in the Missouri, late spring through early fall in the Yellowstone and then return to the same area of the Missouri River where it was in spring. The big question that we are struggling with is “Why do they do this?”.
This week, the colder temperatures have, once again, slowed our fish down a bit. Most are moving in the same direction they started going in a few weeks ago, but just at a slower rate.
Our two movers of the week were both pallid sturgeon. Pallid Sturgeon No. 1, also known as Oscar, Napolean, and Goldy, swam 19 miles down the Missouri while Pallid Sturgeon No. 3, a.k.a Bubba and Hawkings, swam 17 miles up the Missouri R.