falls. As recently as 1980 a boater reported seeing a small sturgeon in shallow 

 water on a gravel bar near Libby (Graham 1981). This could have been one of the 

 five sturgeon captured below the falls in 1975 by biologists from the Montana 

 DFWP and released in Lake Koocanusa. However, if its estimated size was 

 correct, it was too small to be one of the transplanted fish (Graham 1981). If 

 this fish was a sturgeon, it is impossible to say where it came from. An angler 

 may have caught it below the falls and moved it upstream. 



To date, three of the five sturgeon DFWP transplanted into Lake Koocanusa 

 known to have moved upstream into British Columbia where they were captured 

 ,r n flowing water habitat (Graham 1981). The other two sturgeon have not been 

 recovered. This supports the contention of Coon et al. (1977) that landlocked 

 wl e sturgeon prefer running-water habitat. In the radio-tracking study by 

 Coon et al., nine out of nine white sturgeon located in the area to be inundated 

 by Lower Granite Dam on the mid-Snake River moved out of the area when the 

 reservoir was filled. This evidence is supported by data from angler catches in 

 the Columbia and Snake rivers where most sturgeon are caught in the free- flowing 

 sections between dams (Coon et al. 1977). 



Graham (1981) speculates that sturgeon moved out of these reservoirs because 

 of poor food supply rather than a preference for running water as such. 

 Graham's reasoning stems from the use of the highly productive Kootenay Lake and 

 estuaries by white sturgeon. Whatever the reason, the evidence is strong that 

 landlocked white sturgeon will not remain in reservoirs. 



FISH MOVEMENTS 



Movement of sturgeon populations seems to vary among river systems but all 

 studies have documented some movement (Haynes et al. 1978, Coon et al. 1977, 



-9- 



