Lake sturgeon, ancient North American freshwater fish, will no longer be protected under the Endangered Species Act, according to federal wildlife officials. The decision concludes a petition filed by the Center for Biological Diversity in 2018, which sought to list lake sturgeon as endangered or threatened.
Wildlife officials state stocking programs have helped lake sturgeon populations recover and increase spawning. The agency acknowledges that populations are not at historical highs but have returned to the Red River of the North between Minnesota and North Dakota, the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, portions of the Mississippi River, and the Coosa River thanks to stocking efforts.
Dam removals and habitat restoration efforts have also contributed to the recovery of lake sturgeon. The agency cited work in 2015 to retrofit a dam on Wisconsin’s Menominee River to allow spawning sturgeon to travel upstream and the removal of the Brecksville Dam on Ohio’s Cuyahoga River in 2020 as examples of successful restoration projects.
The wildlife service also highlighted reef restoration work in the corridor connecting Lake Huron and Lake Erie, which has created a place for sturgeon to lay eggs, and the cleanup of nine of 43 toxic spots along Great Lakes shorelines. The assessment also noted that the adaptable species should be able to withstand warmer water due to climate change.
Lake sturgeon are essentially living fossils, first appearing about 136 million years ago. They resemble torpedoes, with dorsal ridges and snouts, and can grow up to 7 feet long and weigh up to 300 pounds. Males typically live about 50 years, while females can live between 80 and 150 years.
Commercial anglers once considered lake sturgeon a nuisance, leading to widespread over-harvesting in the 1800s and 1900s. Lake sturgeon cannot reproduce fast enough to replace the losses, as it takes up to three decades for them to reach spawning age. Additionally, many do not survive the trip back to their birth waters to spawn.
While twenty states have outlawed sturgeon harvesting, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin still hold hook-and-line lake sturgeon fishing seasons and sturgeon spearing seasons each winter. These seasons are tightly regulated to ensure that the harvests do not impact the species overall.
