A Fish Back From The Dead?
Published: Tuesday, January 15, 2019
By: Norm Schultz
Fishing is the number one use of a boat. Indeed, surveys show up to 70 percent of all recreational boats are used to fish at least some of the time. It’s why there will be a myriad of fishing models at winter boat shows this year, like at the Progressive Cleveland Boat Show this weekend (January 17-21).
But for angling lovers like me, my attention has been called to the current attempt to restore the mighty sturgeon to Lake Erie. Bringing this great fish back from the dead illustrates the good that can happen when people pull together to make what most would call impossible, possible!
This fish story was recently told by Matt Markey, outdoors editor of the The Blade (Toledo). He dubbed the idea “one of those pie-in-the-sky kind of ecological moonshots.” After all, he observed, the once plentiful sturgeon in Lake Erie are long gone. In the 1800s, they were caught for their eggs and sold as caviar. Commercial fishermen killed them off because their large and powerful bodies could destroy fishing nets. Harvesting was unregulated. You know the rest.
A communications associate holding a lake sturgeon collected on restored spawning grounds in the lower St. Clair River in 2013.
Photo Credit: Andrea Miehls, US Geological Survey
Fast forward to five years ago and to a group of conservationists sitting around in the Toledo Yacht Club. “Let’s bring back the sturgeon,” they quipped. Remarkably, the idea became a reality on a recent Saturday morning when 3,000 juvenile sturgeons were released to, once again, swim in the Maumee River that flows into Lake Erie
A consortium of individuals, agencies, and others had all worked together in major roles to move the sturgeon restoration project forward; the complete list appears below.
According to Chris Vandergoot, who was part of the initial sturgeon brainstorm: “I don’t think any of us would have imagined where we are today with the lake sturgeon restoration efforts currently underway.” He is a research fisheries biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey and the former administrator of the Lake Erie Fisheries Sandusky Research Station for the Ohio Division of Wildlife. He emphasized the strength of the consortium that has come together to make it happen.
“Our ability to work collaboratively with multiple state, federal, and provincial agencies to get to this point highlights the importance of inter-agency collaboration,” Vandergoot said.
It’s thought that more than 1 million sturgeon inhabited Lake Erie about 200 years ago. The 3,000 juvenile sturgeon released into the river had spent the past few months in a streamside rearing trailer designed to allowed them to become acclimated to the Maumee and imprinted with its chemical signature. The hope is they will eventually return to the river to spawn.
Specifically, the Toledo Zoo & Aquarium raised about 600 of the sturgeon from eggs collected in U.S. and Canadian waters, while about 2,400 additional fish were brought in from the USFWS National Fish Hatchery in Wisconsin. The fish were about six months old and about seven inches long when they were released.
Markey aptly called the sturgeon “the Methuselah of fish.” They have dinosaur-like armor plating and a bill-like snout. They can live more than 100 years, reach 300 pounds, and more than 11 feet in length. Adding to the complexity of their survival, a male sturgeon won’t spawn until 15, and then, only every one to four years. Female sturgeon won’t spawn until they reach 20 years old, and then just once every four to six years.
Keep in mind this group was “talking about a dinosaur, a relic, a link to the distant prehistoric era that could trace its lineage into the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods of geologic time,” wrote Markey, “and possibly as far back as the Triassic period. This creature’s ancestors appear in the fossil record some 200 million years ago.”
Sandy Bihn, executive director of Lake Erie Waterkeeper, was an early advocate for the restoration project. “The river is always perceived as the muddy Maumee,” said Bihn, “and not embraced as much as it should be, so maybe having this dinosaur fish swimming around might captivate people.”
It’s not going to be an overnight success. “There is a long road ahead, with respect to establishing a self-sustaining population, but I think the project is off to a great start,” Vandergoot said. Indeed it is - and a well-earned recognition to all involved in this inspiring undertaking.
Salute to these participants: The Toledo Zoo & Aquarium; the University of Toledo; Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife; Lake Erie Waterkeeper; Michigan Department of Natural Resources; U.S. Geological Survey; Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources; Purdy Fisheries Ltd; University of Windsor; and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
tags: Environmental Impact, Fishing, Lake Erie
