Rare fish discovered in Mississippi’s Pearl River, traveled 200 miles and over dam on its journey

Rare fish discovered in Mississippi’s Pearl River, traveled 200 miles and over dam on its journey

Source: Magnolia State Live

1/17/2022

Rare fish discovered in Mississippi’s Pearl River, traveled 200 miles and over dam on its journey

Credit: Magnolia State Live

A fish that hasn’t been sighted in 25 years in the central Mississippi waters of the Pearl River has been detected in the Jackson area.

The sighting of a Gulf sturgeon has researchers using exclamation marks in their social media posts about the find.

The fish apparently traveled more than 200 miles up the Pearl River and was able to get over a dam on the river to reach Jackson.

“A 5-foot long Gulf sturgeon was detected in the Pearl River near LeFleurs Bluff State Park ABOVE the Jackson Waterworks dam this past spring!!” the nonprofit Pearl River Keeper reported on Facebook on Jan. 13.

Two lowhead dams on the Pearl River are barriers to their natural migration and spawning patterns, according to the social media post. Researcher believe floodwaters likely helped the fish get over the dam.

In 1991, gulf sturgeons were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act after their population was greatly reduced or eliminated throughout much of their range because of overfishing, dam construction, and habitat degradation.

Before this past spring, the last confirmed Gulf sturgeon sighting in the Jackson area was 1996.

According to the post, the fish that was sighted in the spring was originally tagged in 2017 and was detected by a group of researchers from Dr. Michael Andres’ lab from The University of Southern Mississippi.