Photos by Tom Campbell A $3,000 Hutton Scholarship allowed Kendall Huffer to spend the summer collecting research data on the Wabash River. Huffer and forestry and natural resources graduate student Anthony Kennedy (below), collected shovelnose sturgeon near Purdue’s West Lafayette campus. After netting the fish (above), Huffer weighed, measured and banded each sturgeon before returning it to the river.

Like a sturgeon

High schooler spends
summer with the fishes

Talk about a dream job, Lafayette’s Kendall Huffer had it this summer.

The Lafayette Jefferson High School senior hung a “Gone Fishin’” sign on her life and spent the better part of the summer on a boat on the Wabash River, where she caught enough fish to feed a small country.

Huffer was able to perfect a world-class tan while she learned about Purdue’s Department of Forestry and Natural Resources and earned a $3,000 scholarship from the Hutton Junior Fisheries Biology Program.

The scholarship allowed Huffer to work with Trent Sutton, an assistant professor in the forestry and natural resources department, and his graduate student, Anthony Kennedy. The team collected shovelnose sturgeon from the Wabash River to examine their biological attributes (length, weight and age) and population dynamics.

As fish go, the shovelnose is not a looker. It has, well, a shovel for a nose and a sucker-type mouth on the bottom of its head with catfish-like barbs on either side. Its reptile-like body is covered in pale, bony plates.

But by the end of the summer, Huffer had developed an affinity for the prehistoric species.

“I think the shovelnose is an interesting fish,” she says. “It’s definitely the most unusual fish in the river.

“It’s been a great experience. I’ve learned a lot about the different number of species of fish in the Wabash River, and I’ve been able to be outside almost the entire summer.”

Huffer was one of 328 high school students to apply for the 2004 Hutton Scholarship, developed by the American Fisheries Society. Only 65 applicants were selected to participate in the program nationwide.

Huffer, Kennedy and Sutton spent weekdays this summer trolling various portions of a 50-mile stretch of the Wabash River between Delphi and Attica. The trio used a flat-bottomed johnboat with electrical wires that are dropped into the water to temporarily stun the fish. When the shovelnose sturgeon surfaced, Huffer would net, weigh, measure and band the fish before returning them to the river.

“This study is important because of the collapse of sturgeon caviar fisheries in Europe and Asia,” says Sutton, noting that this has raised concerns regarding the overharvest of shovelnose sturgeon in the Midwestern United States.

“The results of this research will be provided to the Indiana and Illinois Departments of Natural Resources (Fisheries Division) to ensure that a proactive approach is taken for shovelnose sturgeon management and conservation in the Wabash River,” he says.

But Sutton says there is another benefit besides getting another deckhand on board the Purdue Research Vessel.

“The real advantage of the Hutton Award is that it allows high school students — Kendall Huffer and others like her across the United States — the opportunity to become exposed to an area of study such as fisheries, for which they normally would not have had the opportunity,” Sutton says.

And for Huffer, the benefits may far outlast her summer tan.

“The program has been useful in that it allowed me to learn more about the field,” she says. “For the future, I am now able to consider fisheries as a possible career choice. My experience in the Hutton Program has been memorable. I have learned about a whole new career field.”