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Photos of 2016 white sturgeon release into Kootenay River near Creston

About 1,500 juvenile white sturgeon were released into the Kootenay River on April 27...
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A crowd at the public sturgeon release on Wednesday.

About 1,500 juvenile white sturgeon were released into the Kootenay River on Wednesday, including about 1,000 in a public event at the former West Creston ferry landing; the others were released by schoolchildren in the morning.

The annual release, co-ordinated by the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho (which hatches sturgeon) and the Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations, has been going on since 1999, with a goal of helping to repopulate the endangered species. Out of every 1,000 released, 280 will survive two years, 220 will survive five and 190 will survive eight. After 12 years, about 180 are still alive.