er (1983) indicated that floating nets can be used by
fishermen to catch sturgeon at that time. The fish
are also vulnerable to propeller strikes by pleasure
or commercial craft while swimming near the sur-
face for several authors have noted finding fish with
anterior ends of rostrums missing or severed caudal
peduncles (Helms 1973, Christenson 1975, Moos
1978). Helms (1972) reported that 42% of the shov-
elnose sturgeon are harvested during May and June.
Most of the commercial harvest is taken with
trammel nets, although some operators use traps.
During spring, traps are often baited with sexually
mature females, which are believed to attract more
shovelnose sturgeon. Helms (1972) described the
two major means of setting nets as dead or station-
ary sets in currents along the channel borders or
drifting, where bottom conditions allow. Drifting of
trammel nets can be very effective during periods
when shovelnose sturgeon are relatively inactive
and concentrated downstream from dams or near
wing dams, or are located in deeper pools down-
stream from sand bars. When flows are reduced in
winter and river waters drop in regulated rivers,
shovelnose sturgeon concentrate and can become
very vulnerable to netting. At this time, a technique
that involves weighting one end of the trammel net
and setting it near the edge of a scour hole and then
sweeping the other end through the hole like a seineSome fish are sold locally or directly to the public
by commercial anglers as hog dressed or eviscerat-
ed fish, while others are eviscerated fish with heads
removed. In distant markets or where the marketSport and commercial harvests of shovelnose
sturgeon are difficult to compare or analyze due to
absence of similar data across its range. According
to responses to a questionnaire used to obtain in-
formation for this project, sport harvest of shovel-
nose sturgeon generally is considered low with most
of the harvest coinciding with the spring spawning
season. Few anglers fish specifically for shovelnose
sturgeon; much of the catch is incidental. Estimates
of sport fishing exploitation rates are limited to the
work of Christenson (1975) on the Red Cedar-Chip-
pewa rivers in Wisconsin (2% annual exploitation
rate) and Elser et al. (1977) on the Yellowstone and
Tongue rivers in Montana (a 1% rate). No data are
available on recent exploitation rates as a result of
commercial harvest.
Today, there is a significant commercial harvest
from the Mississippi River upstream from the
mouth of the Ohio River, from the lower Missouri
River, and from the Wabash River. In states where
commercial harvest data were available (Table 2),
information was provided by commercial anglers as
part of their licensing requirement. Helms (1972)
considered such data to be conservative. Presently,
about 25 tons of shovelnose sturgeon are harvested
annually; 60% comes from the Mississippi River
upstream of St. Louis, Missouri. Limited informa-
tion on the values of shovelnose sturgeon products
exists. is effective.
Most harvest occurs in May and June and is be-
lieved to be associated with movement that coinci-
des with spawning activity (Hurley 1983). Coker
(1930) stated that shovelnose sturgeon tend to swim
near the surface during the spawning run and Beck-
Table 2. Commercial harvest and prices (in dollars per kg) of shovelnose sturgeon by state in 1992. N.A. indicates data were not available.