neosho nfh newsletter feb-april 10

8/9/2019 Neosho NFH Newsletter Feb-April 10

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U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

February -April 2010

Neosho National Fish Hatcher Newsletter

Its All Coming TogetherThe visitor center has really begun to look like the

facility we have been imagining it could be for thelast 6 years. Recent construction has produced avisible, tangible building that looks even betterthan our pictures of the computer-designedreplica. The noticeable progress has beenexciting to observe.In early March, the much discussed onion andpyramid domes were lifted and carefullypositioned. By the end of March, the cementboard siding was mostly nailed in and drywallinstallation was in full swing. Within a month, the

drywall was mudded and ready for painting. Thepaint crew has taken less than three weeks toprime and paint the exterior siding and most of theinterior already. Almost all painted surfaces areon their second coat of paint. Other than someroof flashing, the metal roofing is now in place. All windows and most of the exterior doors have beeinstalled. Solar panels have been placed on the south-facing slope of the roof and are working. Thinterior ceiling grid installation started this week.

The onion dome required spotters on both sides to

ensure the proper alignment and position.

With so many changes, it is no surprise that we are not the only ones watching the progress closelAlong with spring and the warm weather come tours and increased visitors. They are just as eager see the new center completed as we are.

Knowing that it took the local communitys support, our local leaders backing, and cooperation withthe Fish and Wildlife Service to make this building possible, we look forward to sharing this faciliwith the public. It is tangible evidence of what public support has achieved for the city of Neosho anfor the future of fisheries.

Left Photo: Metal roofing is still being installed and siding on south side of building is complete.

Right Photo: Most of the building has been painted two coats and solar panels are installed.


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February-April 201


Proposed Listing of the Shovelnose Sturgeon

At the end of January, hatchery manager David Hendrix travelled to Cape Girardeau, MO to sit in on a publichearing regarding the proposed listing of the shovelnose sturgeon as threatened. Here is a brief summaryregarding the issue taken from the Fish and Wildlife Service website:

On September 21, 2009, we announced a proposed rule to treat the shovelnose sturgeon as a threatenedspecies under the Act. The shovelnose sturgeon and the endangered pallid sturgeon are difficult todifferentiate in the wild and inhabit overlapping portions of the Missouri and Mississippi River basins. FourStates where the two species commonly coexist allow for commercial fishing of shovelnose sturgeon and theirroe (eggs sold as caviar). Because of the close resemblance in appearance between the shovelnose andpallid sturgeon, fishermen, State regulators, and law enforcement personnel have substantial difficulty indifferentiating between the two species and their roe. This similarity of appearance has resulted in thedocumented take of pallid sturgeon and is a threat to the species. The determination that the shovelnosesturgeon should be treated as threatened due to similarity of appearance will substantially facilitate lawenforcement actions to protect and conserve pallid sturgeon. (http://www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/missouririver/moriver_pallidsturgeon.htm)

The proposed listing may give our partners in the field better results on their mark-recapture data. Withcommercial fishing prohibited in designated areas where pallid and shovelnose habitat overlap, it will beinteresting to see how the juveniles that we stock respond in the absence of fishing pressure. It will take up to12 months for Fish and Wildlife Service to make a final determination on the proposed listing.

Follow the link below to read more about this topic.http://www.fws.gov/Midwest/endangered/fishes/shovelnose.html

Examples of educational photos that compare the

species side by side to help educate the public on tdifference between pallid and shovelnose sturgeon.(Le

Missouri Department of Conservation photo, Bott

FWS photo)

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http://www.fws.gov/mountain-%20prairie/missouririver/moriver_pallidsturgeon.htmhttp://www.fws.gov/mountain-%20prairie/missouririver/moriver_pallidsturgeon.htmhttp://www.fws.gov/mountain-%20prairie/missouririver/moriver_pallidsturgeon.htmhttp://www.fws.gov/mountain-%20prairie/missouririver/moriver_pallidsturgeon.htm


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February-April 201


Sturgeon Broodstock Show Weight Increase Over Time

Of the fifteen adult pallids thatwe currently have on station,we acquired five during the falland winter of 2008. JaniceBryan from USGSs Columbiaoffice used ultrasound andendoscopy technology todetermine that these five fishwould soon be capable ofspawning. Since then, the fishhave been quarantined, fedrainbow trout fingerlings, andmonitored, in the hopes that

some of them might be ready for this years spawning season.

Apparently they were listening because all four of the females are nowreproductive and gravid (carrying developed eggs). Two of them havealmost doubled their weight. The third female has more than doubledher weight. And the fourth female,one of our smallest fish, started out

just over 5 pounds and is now 7.25pounds. The fifth sturgeon, a male,has doubled his weight as well.These pallids have been on station

the longest, but the newer arrivalsare not too far behind in weight gain.Although some may call it boring,their strict diet of rainbow troutfingerlings certainly seems to satiatetheir appetite.

Let the Sturgeon Tagging Begin!At the end of February, we began our first tagging session. Focusing on

the juveniles we had on station thelongest, we PIT tagged and removed the 5th left scute on 3,149 fishWith the help of eleven people from Nebraska Game and ParksCommission and Missouri Department of Conservations Blind PonyState Fish Hatchery and Chillicothe Field Station, we completed theeffort in one day.

Training

Assistant Manager

Roderick May visited

National Conservation

Training Center to

coordinate the Fisheries

Academy course.

Biologist Melissa

Cheung attended the

two-week long course

Fisheries Academy at

NCTC.

Manager David Hendrix

and Assistant Manager

Rod May braved coldwinter conditions,abnormally high amounts

of snow, and dicey road

conditions to attend the

Climate Change training

at NCTC.

Hatchery Manager

David Hendrix drove to

Mississippi to participate

in training regarding

Landscape ConservationCooperatives (LCCs).

Lead Biologist Jaime

Pacheco drove through

sleet and snow to catch his

flight to NCTC. He

attended the week-long

Stream Habitat

Measurement course.

Left Photo: MDC staff from Blind Pony SFH PIT tag sturgeon juveniles.

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February-April 201


To the Missouri River They GoTagged, 11 month old sturgeon juveniles have beenstocked into 5 different sites thus far: Herman,Weldon Spring, Portland and Lexington, all stockingpoints on the Missouri River in Missouri, andAtchison, Kansas. With just over 1000 young of theyear left to stock, we will put the rest of the fish intothe last two stocking sites: Nebraska City andPonca State Park. Since this is our busy time of theyear, we are already ready to start spawning our

pallid broodstockand have tanks set-up for sturgeoneggs and fry.

Time to Say GoodbyeMarch has been the busiest by far in terms of sending 10inch+ trout to Lake Taneycomo. With eleven trips in thebooks for this month, we have shipped 42,635 fish, or19,983 pounds of trout. Twenty-six thousand of those

grew to size in our earthen ponds. Kept back a monthdue to bad winter weather, these fish were over 11inches onaverage.

Above Photo: MDC staff from Chillicothe, MO transfer fish from Neosho

distribution unit onto their boat on the Missouri River.

Left Photo: Michelle Dalbey of Blind Pony SFH loads juvenile sturgeon f

Neosho NFH onto her distribution unit for stocking.

Meetings

Project Engineer Carol Fix andContracting Officer ElaineDeGroot and CrosslandConstruction attended the monthly

progress meeting on construction ofthe visitor center. Problems,timetables and perimeter fencingwere among the topics ofdiscussion.

David Rauch, Senior StaffRepresentative for Senator ClaireMcCaskill visited the hatchery onApril 28th to tour the visitor center.

He previously attended the ground-breaking ceremony for the visitorcenter on July 1st of last year.

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February-April 201


April 18th, Open House at NeoshoBlessed with great weather and a steady,continuous flow of pedestrian traffic, we werekept very busy at this years open house. Asusual we had a mlange of educational boothsGeorge Washington Carver NationalMonuments educational booth, a rock specialisa snake specialist, the Southern Missouribeekeepers club, the master gardeners club anof course Missouri Department of Conservationtree giveaway booth. The state had hundreds young pine, redbud and white flowering

dogwood trees free for the public. Hatchery staffserved the public lunch. Friends of the Fish Hatcherygroup members and volunteers contributed bakedgoods and their time to ensure that the day wentsmoothly.

Above Photo: Frank Martinez educates about venomous

snakes and brought a couple lively examples.

Right Photo: Neosho staff serves lunch and refreshments to

the public.

National Fisheries Friends Partnership

The annual meeting for the National Fisheries Friends Partnership was held in Alrington, VA

from April 20-22. Hatchery Manager David Hendrix and Jerry Christian, President of the

Friends of Neosho National Fish Hatchery, attended the week-long meeting. Future friends

group initiatives were discussed and networking with friends groups from across the US was

made possible.

Unless otherwise stated, articles are written and assembled by Melissa Cheung.

Interested in learning more about what we do? Visit our blog atwww.NeoshoNFH.blogspot.com

520 E Park Street, Neosho, MO 64850

417-451-0554

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neosho nfh newsletter feb-april 10

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