The Iowa Department of Natural Resources issued a release on the evening of July 13 reporting a substantial loss of shovelnose sturgeon in the lower Des Moines River due to high water temperatures and low water levels on a long stretch of the river.
The DNR was notified on July 10 of a fish kill on the lower Des Moines River. DNR staff from the Fisheries Bureau investigated and found an estimated 20,000 dead shovelnose sturgeon in a 60 mile river stretch from near Ottumwa to Farmington in southeast Iowa.
High water temperatures, low flows cause shovelnose sturgeon kill on Iowa’s lower Des Moines River
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