Sturgeon — North America

“The world’s failure to safeguard sturgeon species is an indictment of governments across the globe, who are failing to sustainably manage their rivers and live up to their commitments to conserve these iconic fish and halt the global loss of nature . . . These shocking – but sadly not surprising – assessments mean that sturgeon retain their unwanted title as the world’s most threatened group of species.”

"Scientists and students embarking on a census of Georgia lake sturgeon have found three females with mature eggs - an indication the armored "living fossils" may be reproducing in that state for the first time in a half-century . . . Pollution, habitat destruction and harvesting for flesh and caviar have so diminished their numbers that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering federal protection for the species."

“They seem ancient . . . It’s like you’re looking at that history . . . They’re like elders . . . Our natural resources are sacred to us . . . It’s up to us to oversee them . . . “We’re still here and still doing this work . . . These animals, these fish, they give their lives to sustain us. It’s our responsibility to protect them.”

"Sturgeon were America’s vanishing dinosaurs, armor-plated beasts that crowded the nation’s rivers until mankind’s craving for caviar pushed them to the edge of extinction. More than a century later, some populations of the massive bottom feeding fish are showing signs of recovery in the dark corners of U.S. waterways. Increased numbers are appearing in the cold streams of Maine, the lakes of Michigan and Wisconsin and the coffee-colored waters of Florida’s Suwannee River. A 14-foot Atlantic sturgeon — as long as a Volkswagen Beetle — was recently spotted in New York’s Hudson River . . . Scientists have been finding sturgeon in places where they were thought to be long gone. And they’re seeing increased numbers of them in some rivers because of cleaner water, dam removals and fishing bans. These discoveries provide some hope for a fish that is among the world’s most threatened."

“This species of sturgeon, which can grow to a length of six feet and weigh as much as 80 pounds, has managed to survive since the time of the dinosaurs, with fossils dating back some 70 million years. For all of the adaptations that have enabled this fish to have such a long run, however, the pallid sturgeon is in serious trouble . . . Despite government efforts to expand the population, only perhaps 200 or fewer wild-born pallid sturgeons are thought to inhabit one of its last strongholds — the Montana stretches of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers . . . Dams along the Missouri River have contributed to the sturgeon’s undoing, blocking spawning runs and altering hundreds of miles of river habitat.”

“A current harm to the remaining sturgeon population comes with the massive number of lake trout and salmon fry that are stocked in the rivers in the spring of each year, about the same time the sturgeon larvae begin their drift. At this time, tribal biologists enter the dark waters of the river around midnight and painstakingly collect the elusive larvae from the frigid waters of the Big Manistee. The larvae are then carefully transported to the tribe’s patented streamside rearing facility, where they are fed, monitored, treated for disease, and raised until their protective plates are formed. The process takes approximately four months, when tribal biologists feel the sturgeon survival rate is ensured. The Tribe’s annual sturgeon release ceremony takes place each September along the shores of the same river the larvae were retrieved from, the source that we feel imprints them with the water of the Manistee.”

“The sturgeon migration is an amazing spectacle. We can identify sturgeon that have been tagged before when they come up the river. Although the literature says this return should happen every two to four years, we see some males returning to some previously tagged females. Some of these are just under seven feet in length. The annual spawning run is a wonder of nature at its finest. It is spectacular to see the sturgeon in all its glory. You look down from the cliff, look up and see eagles, and hear the rippling of the water. When sturgeon are spawning, you can hear them thrash and literally feel the ground shake.

“The state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and its collaborative partners achieved a long-awaited milestone in their efforts to restore lake sturgeon in the Oneida Lake system, the agency announced on Monday. In April a researcher at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Tunison Laboratory of Aquatic Sciences discovered two female lake sturgeon carrying eggs downstream of Oneida Lake. The fish, stocked in Oneida Lake by DEC in 1995 as part of an effort to improve threatened lake sturgeon populations, were the first mature females found since the state restoration work began nearly 20 years ago. ‘This is a truly significant event,’ said DEC Commissioner Joe Martens. ‘It is a great example of how, with good science, we can restore a species that nearly disappeared from our state.’”

"The Atlantic sturgeon survived the Ice Age but is now threatened with extinction. Despite a more than decade-old ban on fishing for the sturgeon, a host of other threats – including ongoing catch in other fisheries, habitat damage, pollution and the growing effects of climate change – have proved too challenging for the species to recover. By recognizing the fish's endangered status, the federal government is giving this remarkable fish a fighting chance to live on into the 21st century."

"The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is giving the shovelnose sturgeon the same protections as the endangered pallid sturgeon in rivers and streams where the species coexist, because the pallid fish are being collected along with their similar-looking shovelnosed cousins. The Endangered Species Act contains similarity of appearance provisions for protecting species that are closely related and not easily distinguishable in the wild. The shovelnose is harvested for its roe, which are sold as American caviar, and the pallid sturgeon frequently ends up in fishing nets with the shovelnose. The two species inhabit overlapping parts of the Missouri and Mississippi River basins.

“Even with their gradual comeback-in-the-making, today’s lake sturgeon make up just 1 percent of the numbers found in the Great Lakes region in the late 1800s. They are listed as threatened in Michigan and Ontario and endangered in Ohio waters of the Great Lakes . . . John Hartig, manager of the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge, described them as ‘big torpedo fish,’ strong enough to knock over three adult men . . . Mr. Hartig said they are a ‘show-stopper’ around children. ‘When you take kids and show them a fish that is five or six feet long, they are blown away,’ Mr. Hartig said. “It’s a living dinosaur. It’s been around that long. They ask, ‘How has that thing survived when so many other things have gone extinct?’”

“The annual nmé (lake sturgeon) return and its celebration by our Peoples assure the renewal and continuation of human and all other life.”

“The sturgeon population in the Big Manistee River, Michigan, is an example where for over 100 years the population was overlooked, where decisions and concerns for resource managers were often how many exotic trout should be stocked or what the fisherman’s opinion may be about that year’s harvest. Out of necessity and a cultural responsibility, the tribes began to work on restoring the sturgeon because it was unacceptable to them to lose a species that is revered and belongs in the watershed.”

“This remarkable news is more than just a testimony to the need to conserve habitat in order to pull an endangered species back from the brink of extinction. It speaks eloquently for the need to restore some natural flows to rivers so they’re more than just dammed and channelized flood control projects slucing fresh water toward the sea . . . When we let the Big Muddy be the Big Muddy, suddenly one of America’s historic and most endangered game fish is spotted spawning in nature once again.”