Created! Endangered western marsh turtle eggs
On May 24, eight western bog turtles hatched from eggs at Perth Zoo in Australia. Western bog turtles are near extinction, so once mature, these babies will be released into the Western Australia habitat in an effort to increase the population.
- Federal wildlife officials have announced that the lake sturgeon no longer requires protection under the Endangered Species Act.
- The decision ends a petition the Center of Biological Diversity filed in 2018 that sought to list the lake sturgeon as endangered or threatened.
- The lake sturgeon, an ancient North American freshwater fish, faces challenges due to slow reproductive rates and historical over-exploitation.
lake sturgeon Endangered Species Act protections are no longer needed, federal wildlife officials announced Monday, saying that stocking programs have helped prehistoric fish return to areas where they disappeared.
The decision concludes a petition the Arizona-based Center of Biological Diversity filed in May 2018 asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the lake sturgeon as endangered or threatened. Such listings would make harvesting the fish illegal, but without them, the popular sturgeon harvest season could continue in states like Wisconsin and Michigan.
The Center argued that over-harvesting and deteriorating habitat had “seriously decimated” the species. The center said dams block access to spawning and rearing habitat and have caused “irreparable damage” to water pollution and degradation.
Lesser-known endangered species in the US are at risk due to funding disparities
But agency officials said stocking has helped adult lake sturgeon populations grow and spawn. Chuck Traxler, Wildlife Service’s Midwest deputy regional director, said listing the creatures would be like going to the emergency room, and returning species don’t need that level of protection.
Carson Schumacher, 13, of Minocqua spears this sturgeon on Lake Winnebago near Stockbridge, Wisconsin during the 2023 sturgeon spearing season. Federal wildlife officials announced Monday that lake sturgeon no longer need Endangered Species Act protection, saying stocking programs have helped the prehistoric fish return to areas where they disappeared. (Dan Powers/USA TODAY Network-Wisconsin/USA TODAY Network)
“That doesn’t mean everything is good right now,” he said. “It means keep up the good work.”
The population is not at historic highs, the agency acknowledged in a December assessment, but stocking has returned them to parts of the Red River, Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, Mississippi River and Coosa River north between Minnesota and North Dakota.
The agency has said that dam removal and habitat restoration efforts have also helped, citing work to reconstruct a dam on Wisconsin’s Menominee River in 2015 to allow spawning sturgeon to travel upstream. The Brecksville Dam on Ohio’s Cuyahoga River was removed in 2020.
Scientists say after 50 years of success, the Endangered Species Act is as necessary as ever
The agency also pointed to reef restoration work in the corridor connecting Lake Huron and Lake Erie, which has created space for sturgeon to spawn, and noted that nine of the 43 toxic sites along the Great Lakes shoreline have been cleaned up. Has been given.
The assessment also said that adaptable species should be able to withstand warmer waters due to climate change.
Media officials at the Center for Biological Diversity did not immediately respond to email messages seeking comment on Monday.
Lake sturgeons are ancient North American freshwater fish. They are essentially living fossils, which first appeared about 136 million years ago when dinosaurs ruled the planet. They resemble torpedoes with dorsal ridges and snouts. They can grow up to 7 feet long and weigh up to 300 pounds. Males typically live about 50 years. Women can live anywhere between 80 and 150 years.
They are found in the upper and lower Mississippi River basin as well as the Great Lakes. Commercial fishermen considered lake sturgeon a nuisance because they tore up their nets, leading to massive overharvesting in the 1800s that continued into the 20th century.
A Russian sturgeon is seen in the Caspian Sea. (Reinhard Dirscherl/Ulstein Bild via Getty Images)
Lake sturgeon cannot reproduce fast enough to compensate for the losses. It takes them up to three decades to reach egg-laying age, and even then they do not lay eggs annually. And many do not survive the trip back to their native waters to spawn. wild life service has compared the loss of lake sturgeon to the mass extermination of the American buffalo.
Twenty states have banned the harvesting of sturgeon. Fourteen of those states have listed the lake sturgeon as threatened. or in danger, Volunteers and Wisconsin natural resources officials have been protecting sturgeon eggs from predators on the Wolf River for 30 years.
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There is still a hook-and-line lake sturgeon fishing season in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Sturgeon spearing seasons are also held each winter in Michigan and Wisconsin, where fishermen drill holes in the lake ice and hook the sturgeon as they swim.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources reported 432 sturgeon were taken in February, down from 1,405 in 2023. According to the department, returns were reduced due to warm weather and poor snow conditions. Michigan officials set a total harvest limit of only six sturgeon, but it was rescinded due to warm weather and unsafe ice conditions.
The harvest seasons in those states are so strictly regulated that harvest does not impact the species overall, said Lori Nordstrom, assistant regional director of the Wildlife Service’s Midwest Ecological Services.
Michigan and Wisconsin, for example, allow an angler to take only one sturgeon per year. Minnesota fishermen must release any sturgeon caught in inland waters. According to the Wildlife Service, Wisconsin’s regulations are designed to keep the harvest rate under 5%, with all tag fees going to the state’s sturgeon conservation program.
