poachers. Boy Scouts and 4-H groups plant trees to curb the erosion that degrades spawning habitat. Conservations officers patrol the area. A few onlookers just come to see what you see when humans try to hold down fish that can weigh more than 100 pounds. And yes, some poachers still try to take advantage of the easy pickings.
“We have people on the river watching the fish, and all the human activity, during the entire month of May, when the fish are traditionally active on the river,” said Ann Feldhauser of Sturgeon for Tomorrow, a volunteer group whose mission is to restore the sturgeon population.
Sturgeon for Tomorrow works with biologists from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Michigan State University to understand the fish, protect them from poachers with its Sturgeon Guarding Program, hatch future generations and restore lost spawning habitat. More than $1 million in state and federal dollars have been spent researching sturgeon since 2000.
Lake sturgeon swam when dinosaurs walked the Earth, and did just fine for their first 136 million years of existence. But human activity in the past 150 years pummeled them down through commercial fishing, habitat loss and poaching. Sturgeon once roamed large lake and river systems across the Great Lakes basin, but these days only a remnant population remains in Michigan, mainly in Black, Burt, Mullett and Otsego lakes.
The fish, which grow over six feet long and can weigh up to 200 pounds, are particularly vulnerable in the spring, when they enter shallow rivers like the Black to spawn. Easy to spot and consumed with, well, nature’s call, sturgeon were easy prey for anyone with a spear. After a 1997 survey showed their numbers were perilously low, the Michigan DNR wanted to clamp down on poaching and eliminate legal harvest of the fish – both of which were deeply enmeshed in local culture.
“Some of them families have said they’ve been (poaching) for 100 years and they aren’t going to stop now,” said Jim Flewelling, a 78-year-old Onaway resident who has been part of the Sturgeon Guarding Program since it began. “Like anything else, once you get into the habit of it, it’s hard to stop.”
The folks who opposed poaching but supported a legal harvest approached the DNR with an offer: We’ll protect and restore the fish in exchange for a limited legal spearing season. A deal was struck, and the February sturgeon season on Black Lake was established with a total limit of five fish per year.
That’s how Sturgeon for Tomorrow came to be.
“It had been known for many years that these fish were getting poached when they go up the river to spawn,” said Brenda Archambo, president of Sturgeon for Tomorrow. “And we thought ‘well, this is crazy to take away a sport that is very sacred to us at the expense of letting poachers poach fish in the spring.’”
Sturgeon for Tomorrow now boasts 350 volunteers, more than 100 of whom hit the riverbanks in May to prevent poaching. Everyone is welcome. Camping is encouraged. Volunteers spend some 3,800 man-hours protecting the spawning fish during April and May each year, Archambo said.
This spring the DNR and MSU will open a permanent fish hatchery designed specifically to raise baby sturgeon for release into the wild. Biologists from MSU will collect sturgeon eggs and milt, along with larval sturgeon, and grow them through the summer. The goal is to release 5,000 sturgeon 7-8 inches long sometime in August, said Kim Scribner, a professor of fisheries and wildlife at MSU.
The hatchery was built by the Tower Kleber Limited Partnership, a power company that owns dams on the Black River, as part of an agreement it negotiated with the DNR. |
“If you didn't have those folks
there, who knows what would
happen? I think that the success
of that program and the awareness
as a whole, all the sturgeon
management efforts up there,
have been more than we could
have expected when we first
started this back in 1997.”
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Dave Borgeson
Michigan DNR |
The 2,400-square-foot hatchery replaces a much smaller streamside research facility that has been used to study sturgeon life history and determine how big young sturgeon must be to improve survival after they’re released. The streamside facility was so successful that it has served as the model for other facilities in Michigan; as part of the research 17,000 juvenile lake sturgeon were released in the Cheboygan River watershed, which includes Black Lake and the Black River.
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Juvenile sturgeon swim at the streamside research station.
A permanent hatchery opens this spring with a goal of
release 5,000 young sturgeon every August.
(Photo courtesy of Sturgeon for Tomorrow)
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Because they mature slowly, the sturgeon released this summer may not return to spawn for 10-20 years. But scientists are beginning to see the fish they planted originally returning to spawn, which means their efforts are beginning to pay off.
“The sturgeon is an amazing creature, almost prehistoric, and it is a resource that is extremely valuable and it’s worth our effort to ensure the survival of the species,” Feldhauser said. “It used to be considered a nuisance fish because of its size and the way it damaged fishing nets. Now we have a chance to do something right for this species to help it regenerate and return to its original population and thrive once more.” |
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