The Kootenai River Population
of White Sturgeon
(Acipenser transmontanus)

photo provided with permission from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game

An Example of U.S./Canada Cooperation in the Protection and Recovery of an Endangered Species

Contents:
Since 1992 Where are the sturgeon? (range & habitat) What does the sturgeon look like? Threats Recovery efforts Interesting facts Contacts in Canada Contacts in the U.S.

Since 1992
International cooperation between the United States and Canada to protect and conserve the Kootenai River population of white sturgeon began in June 1992 with the formation of the Kootenai River White Sturgeon Technical Committee. The Committee, composed of individuals representing several State, tribal, Federal and Canadian agencies, was formed to identify factors affecting Kootenai River white sturgeon and develop a regional, prelisting recovery strategy. The Kootenai River population of white sturgeon was listed as endangered throughout its range in the United States and Canada on September 6, 1994.

A recovery team composed of two Canadians and eight Americans was formed in January 1995. The team completed a final recovery plan for the Kootenai River white sturgeon in 1998 which was subsequently approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in late 1999. The recovery plan describes a series of reasonable actions in the United States and Canada that are believed necessary to recover the endangered white sturgeon. Recovery objectives are to reestablish successful reproduction in the wild by increasing Kootenai River flows and producing hatchery-reared juveniles over the next 10 years to prevent extinction.

Where are the sturgeon?

Present distribution of the Kootenai River white sturgeon. USFWS

Although officially termed and listed as the "Kootenai River population of white sturgeon", this white sturgeon population inhabits and migrates freely in the Kootenai River from Kootenai Falls in Montana downstream into Kootenay Lake, British Columbia (B.C.), Canada. The Kootenai River population of white sturgeon is one of 18 land-locked populations of white sturgeon found in the Pacific Northwest. It is restricted to approximately 168 miles (270 kilometers) of the Kootenai River in Idaho and Montana and Kootenay Lake in British Columbia, Canada, primarily upstream from Cora Linn Dam at the outflow from Kootenay Lake. A natural barrier at Bonnington Falls downstream of Kootenay Lake has isolated the Kootenai River white sturgeon from other white sturgeon populations in the Columbia River Basin since the last glacial age approximately 10,000 years ago. This unique stock has been in decline since the mid-1960's. By 1997 the population was estimated to be approximately 1,468 wild fish with few individuals less than 25 years of age. Since 1997, the wild population has been augmented with the release of nearly 2,800 juvenile white sturgeon reared in the Kootenai Tribal Hatchery in Bonners Ferry, Idaho.

What does the sturgeon look like?

line art provided with permission by the Snake River Basin Office, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

White sturgeon are included in the family Acipenseridae which consists of four genera and 24 species of sturgeon. All sturgeon are distinguished in having a cartilaginous skeleton, and also a protractile, tube-like mouth and sensory barbels on the snout. Eight species of sturgeon occur in North America with white sturgeon one of five species in the genus Acipenser. White sturgeon are distinguished from other Acipenser by the specific arrangement and number of scutes (bony plates) along the body.

What are the threats to their survival?
Human activities have changed the natural flows of the Kootenai River, altering the white sturgeon's spawning, egg incubation, nursery, and rearing habitats, and reducing overall productivity of the Kootenai River and Kootenay Lake. Operation of Libby Dam since 1974 is considered to be a primary reason for the population's continued decline. When Libby Dam began regulating the Kootenai River, average spring peak flows were reduced by more than 50 percent, and winter flows were increased by nearly 300 percent. This meant that the natural high spring flows required by white sturgeon for reproduction now occur only rarely during the spawning season.

What is going on to help the population recover?
Canada continues to cooperate and implement transboundary recovery actions on behalf of the Kootenai River population of white sturgeon. British Columbia (BC) Environment and the Canada Department of Fisheries and Oceans continue to be active participants in recovery implementation and coordination activities associated with regulating flows at Kootenai River hydroelectric projects to benefit Kootenai River white sturgeon.

Ralph Bahe, member of the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, conducting
white sturgeon monitoring and assessment work.
Photo provided with permission from the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho

BC Environment is conducting white sturgeon monitoring and assessment work in Kootenay Lake, Canada. These studies are complementary to those continuing in Idaho by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho. BC Environment also recently approved the use of the Kootenay Trout Hatchery located near Fort Steele, B.C. as a back-up or fail-safe white sturgeon facility. Fertilized eggs are transported from the Kootenai Tribe Hatchery in Idaho to a Canadian facility to ensure that at least some juvenile sturgeon will survive for later release into the Kootenai River in the event some catastrophe occurs at the hatcheries.

Flow augmentation proposals for Libby Dam to benefit white sturgeon may result in water spill at other Canadian Kootenai River dams. The United States and Canada will continue to cooperate in evaluating the potential fisheries, power production and flood control impacts from flow augmentation.

Interesting facts

• White sturgeon are the largest freshwater fish in North America. The largest white sturgeon on record weighed approximately 682 kilograms (kg) (1,500 pounds [lb]) and was taken from the Snake River near Weiser, Idaho in 1898.
• Individuals in landlocked white sturgeon populations tend to be smaller. The largest white sturgeon reported from the Kootenai River basin is a 159 kg (350 lb) individual estimated at 85 to 90 years of age captured in Kootenay Lake during September 1995.
• The size or age at first maturity for white sturgeon in the wild is quite variable. In the Kootenai River system, females have been documented to mature as early as age 22 and males at age 16.
• Individual Kootenai River white sturgeon are broadly distributed, migrating freely between the Kootenai River and the deep Kootenay Lake. They spend much of their adult life in Kootenay Lake and may migrate upwards of 71 miles (114 kilometers) into the Kootenai River to reproduce.

Want more information?
Contacts in Canada:

Jay Hammond
British Columbia Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks
410, 333 Victoria Street
Nelson, British Columbia VIL 4K3
(604) 354-6343

Doug Rowland
Habitat and Enhancement Branch
Department of Fisheries and Oceans
1220A - 555 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, British Columbia V6B 5G3
(604) 666-7471

Contacts in the United States:

Stephen Duke*
Recovery Team Leader
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Snake River Basin Office
1387 South Vinnell Way, Room 368
Boise, Idaho 83709
( 208) 378-5345

(*: Also editor for the Kootenai River White Sturgeon RECOVERY UPDATE newsletter published annually each fall.

Robert Hallock, PhD
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Upper Columbia River Office
11103 E. Montgomery Drive, Suite 2
Spokane, Washington 99206
(509) 921-0160

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Information for this web page was provided by Stephen Duke, Recovery Team Leader, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Snake River Basin Office, Boise, Idaho. Thank you.