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Water Depth <br />Bramblett (1996) reported that pallid sturgeons used a mean depth of 2.93 in in the <br />Yellowstone River, 7.74 in in the upper Missouri River, and 3.11 in the lower Missouri <br />River. Clancey (1990) located pallid sturgeon in the Fort Peck tailrace in Montana at <br />depths of 1.7 to 2.7 in while depths used in the tailrace downstream from Oahe Dam on <br />the Missouri River were 4 to 6 in in Lake Sharpe, South Dakota (Erickson 1992). Hurley <br />(1998) found pallid sturgeon using even greater depths of between 6 and 12 in in the <br />middle Mississippi River. <br />Hatchery reared pallid sturgeons in the lower Platte River used depths ranging from 0.15 <br />to 1.68 in and averaged 0.76 in in 1998, and ranged from 0.34 to 1.89 in and averaged <br />0.98 in in 1999. Depth intervals which were used greater than 10% included those <br />between 0.33 and 1.21 in for 1998 and 1999 (Snook 2001). One pallid sturgeon collected <br />in the lower Platte River of Nebraska in May 1989 was captured at a depth of 4.9 feet <br />(NEED REFERENCE). <br />A wild caught pallid sturgeon on the lower Platte River relocated from May 2001 through <br />June 2001 was found using mean depths ranging from 2.94 to 6.0 in (Peters et al. 2001). <br />Flow Velocity <br />Preliminary findings from a study on the Missouri River in South Dakota indicate that <br />pallid sturgeon most frequently occupy river bottoms where flow velocities range from <br />0.33 to 1.0 feet per second (fps) (NEED REFERENCE). Other studies in Montana found <br />they were most frequently associated with water velocities ranging from 1.3 to 3.0 fps <br />(FWS 1993). Bramblett (1996) reported pallid sturgeon were found using bottom <br />velocities from 0.43 to 4.4 fps (0.13 to 1.32 m/s) in the Yellowstone River, from 0 to <br />2.3 fps (0 to 1/37 m/s) on the upper Missouri River, and from 1.5 to 4.6 fps (0.40 to 0.82 <br />m/s) in the lower Missouri River. <br />Snook and Peters (2000) reported released pallid sturgeons using habitats in areas where <br />mean column velocity ranged from 1.35 to 3.28 fps (0.41 to 1.00 m/s); and bottom <br />velocity was generally less than 2.30 fps (0.70 m/s). <br />Mean velocities over the wild caught radio - tagged pallid sturgeon on the lower Platte <br />River were measured and recorded from May 2001 through June 2001, and ranged from <br />0.618 to 1.138; and mean bottom velocities ranged from 0.346 to 0.594 (Peters et al. <br />2001). <br />Draft Baseline Report - Pallid Sturgeon Section 10 <br />