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Morgan Winsor
Taking care of his people
Tribal Chairman Gary Aitken’s job is to help the Kootenais
White sturgeon have spiritual
significance to the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho

By Morgan Winsor

Biologist Susan Ireland claims she has the "best job in the world."
For nearly a half decade, 43-year-old Ireland’s job has been to protect and recover the white sturgeon, a primitive breed of fish that’s been around for 250 million years.
Ireland, who was hired by the Kootenai Tribe in Bonners Ferry, a small town in north Idaho, is the director of the tribe’s Fish and Wildlife Hatchery Program aimed to lift the sturgeon population in the Kootenai River.

Sue Ireland

Alarming studies proved the fish became endangered after the Libby Dam was built upstream on the river in 1974.
"The food plants have gone, therefore the lack of nutrients for the fish have faded," Ireland said. "Before the dam, the flood plains drained into the river and provided nutrients for the sturgeon. It’s our job now to see that these fish survive."
At first glance, a sturgeon resembles a water-breathing dinosaur. Its tough, armored skin lined with three rows of sharp spikes – or scutes – makes the sturgeon look like a fierce water predator. Like sharks, sturgeons are invertebrates. Their bodies are made up of strong cartilage.
"Sturgeons are docile bottom feeders that pose no threat to man," Ireland said.
Sturgeons feed on small animals and plants. They have no teeth and rely on their sucking mouth power to engulf meals. "They’ll eat basically whatever they encounter," Ireland said.
The history of the sturgeon lifts back the pages of time to the ice age, when many of the 25 surgeon species that live in rivers that poured into the Black and Caspian seas.
The Atlantic sturgeon, found in coastal regions and rivers in Europe and northeastern North America, has been known to grow up to 13 feet long and weigh up to 500 pounds. Another surgeon species, the shovelnose, glides through the deep waters of the Mississippi River.
Like the rare green sturgeon, the white sturgeon is found along the Pacific coast from Alaska to California.
Due to the erection of dams and water pollution, white and green sturgeon populations have diminished, Ireland said. A red flag went up in 1994, and under the Endangered Species Act, the fish was listed as endangered.
Although the Kootenai consider the fish is a delicacy, and cooked in butter and the right seasoning the meat can make a succulent meal, for the tribe, the fish is more than a tasty treat.
"Sturgeons are the most wonderful and spiritual fish to the tribe," explained Ireland. "They’ve been around for millions of years. They’ve survived two world extinctions and now they are endangered."


The tribe’s hatchery program is partly funded by the Bonneville Power Administration, and the money is used to spawn and raise the sturgeon. The juvenile fish are released when they reach about one year of age. Ireland said sturgeons can live for up to 100 years.

A sturgeon technician examins
a young fish

Built in 1990, the tribe’s acre-wide hatchery was designed to raise and release the prehistoric fish. It’s also used to study and track the fish throughout its lifespan.
Inside the hatchery are dozens of 10-foot-wide containers, homes to juvenile sturgeons. At a young age, when the sturgeons are about nine months old – about seven inches in length – hatchery workers sedate and remove a "scute," one of the armored studs along the sides of the fish. They then insert a "pit tag," a tiny microchip under its thick skin. Each chip has its own identification tracking number.
After their release, hatchery workers cast gill nets to capture many of the smaller sturgeon and monitor how each fish is responding to its environment. When a
See STURGEON, page 5
sturgeon is captured, the length and weight of the fish is also measured. To capture the larger sturgeon, workers dangle giant hooks laced with hunks of bloody trout meat on 100-pound fishing lines in the river. "And these fish can put up a long, strenuous fight," said Jack Siple, who manages the sturgeon catch-and-release program at the hatchery.
"So far we have an excellent rate of survival, about 90 percent," Ireland said, adding that sometimes it’s tough to catch the fish because they often live in deep holes and under embankments.
Ireland said about six large female sturgeons – up to 8 feet long – are used for breeding. A fish can carry up to 300,000 eggs.
"We’re learning as we go," explained Siple.
Like Ireland, Siple claims he has, "the best job in the state. Probably the best in the country."
For the five hatchery workers, every sturgeon is special. The tribe even has a separate tank to house an albino sturgeon and a few fish with crooked spines. Ireland said those odd sturgeons will most likely never be released into the wild.
"These are our pets," Ireland said. "We care about them all and we will always have room for our pets…no matter what."
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