Copyright syracuse.com
A Great Lakes dinosaur is once again swimming in an Upstate New York creek, thanks to recent stocking efforts by the state Department of Environmental Conservation. DEC, in partnership with the Seneca Nation of Indians and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, released 1,000 eight-inch lake sturgeon into Cattaraugus Creek in mid-October. This stocking is the first step in a 25-year plan to reestablish a spawning population of adult lake sturgeon in the Cattaraugus Creek, a major Lake Erie tributary. “New York is making tremendous strides in restoring and improving the health of the Lake Erie ecosystem,” DEC Commissioner Amanda Lefton said. “The successful collaboration leading to this sturgeon release sets the path to re-establishing historic spawning populations and bolstering growth of the wild Lake Erie sturgeon stock for years to come.” Lake Erie historically supported at least 19 spawning populations of lake sturgeon, including Cattaraugus Creek, according to traditional knowledge provided by the Seneca Nation of Indians. But now there are only two Lake Erie spawning populations: one in the east basin near Buffalo Harbor, and the other in the west basin in the St. Clair Detroit River System. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service raised the sturgeon at the Genoa National Fish Hatchery in Wisconsin. Each fish has a tag implant for identification after release. The released sturgeon will become familiar with Cattaraugus Creek and eventually travel to Lake Erie where, if all goes well, they’ll spend 8 to 10 years maturing into adults before returning to Cattaraugus Creek to spawn. The goal of DEC’s 25-year stocking plan is to create a population of 750 mature sturgeon that spawn in Cattaraugus Creek by 2040. Often referred to as living dinosaurs, lake sturgeon are directly descended from an ancient group of fish that had bony plates for skin and cartilaginous skeletons. They are NY’s largest freshwater fish. Mature adults can live more than 100 years, sometimes reaching lengths of seven feet long and weighing more than 300 pounds. Sturgeon mature after eight years and will breed intermittently in swiftly flowing rivers and large creeks. Efforts to restore Lake Sturgeon populations across the state can be found on DEC’s website. Fishing for lake sturgeon is prohibited in NY. Overfishing and habitat degradation led to severe declines, leading the state to list it as threatened species in 1983. Since 1993, DEC and USFWS have collaborated on a lake sturgeon stocking program. The big fish has been re-established across the state, and many current stocking efforts seek to enhance the genetic diversity of the stocked populations.
