Big Muddy Speaker Series presents:

It's easy to look at the channelized, dark turbid water of the Missouri River and suspect that nothing but catfish and carp live there, but in reality the Big Muddy is host to a wide diversity of fish. Historically, the River was a diverse braided channel over a mile wide, with chutes and island complexes. Fish adapted to this wide range of habitats and used the shallower, slower current areas for nursery and feeding. Today, alteration of the Missouri has eliminated 98% of the historic chutes and islands from Rulo, NE to the Mississippi confluence, and contributed to the decline of several endemic species.

These larval paddlefish were caught in a Missouri River side channel.
photo courtesy of Catlin Ames, MDC

Due to the loss of habitat along the River, the Army Corps of Engineers has responded by funding multiple habitat restoration projects, including the construction or modification of chutes (side channels that create islands along the mainstem of the river). To evaluate if these projects are helping native fish, reference data on the abundance and diversity of fish had to be collected. The Habitat Assessment and Monitoring Program (HAMP) was created to provide reference data of native small-bodied fish use of chutes.

Catlin Ames, Resource Staff Scientist with the Mo. Dept. of Conservation, will describe the efforts of sampling fish in shallow water, as well as the diversity of fish seen along the chutes of the lower Missouri River. The project he is working on, entitled "Establishing chute reference conditions for Missouri River habitat restoration projects", is focused on collecting population data at four historic and restored island chute complexes - Hill’s Bend (Cranberry Chute RM282), Salt Creek Bend (Jameson Chute RM214), Pelican Bend (Pelican Chute RM16), Brickhouse Bend (Little’s Chute RM9.6).