Distribution and Dispersal of Fishes
in the Red River Basin
Acipenseridae -- The Sturgeon Family
Lake Sturgeon
The lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens Rafinesque) is listed as extirpated from North Dakota (Dakota Chapter of the AFS 1994). Prior to the 1970s, anglers occasionally reported catching or observing sturgeon in the Red River north of Grand Forks and in the Pembina River; North Dakota Outdoors (November 1956) published a photograph and account of a 106 pound lake sturgeon caught in 1898 from the Pembina River below the dam and Walhalla.(L. H. Carufel, North Dakota Game and Fish Department). A 102 pound sturgeon was reported from Lake Lida (Pelican River) in 1920 and another weighing 176 pounds and 7 feet 3 inches in length was reported from White Earth Lake (Wild Rice River) in 1926. Robert Strand (Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, pers. comm.) reported a single lake sturgeon caught during the 1950s in a walleye net in the Red Lakes.
In Canada, the lake sturgeon is common in the Hudson Bay drainage (Crossman and McAllister 1986) and is present in the Rainy River/Lake of the Woods (Underhill 1989). Lake sturgeon are absent from the upper Mississippi or Minnesota rivers (Underhill 1989), and from the Missouri River in North Dakota (Ryckman 1981) and South Dakota (Bailey and Allum 1962).
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