Michigan State University and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources released 500 juvenile sturgeons into the Saginaw River system last week.
The release is part of the ongoing effort from the university and the state to rebuild the Black Lake sturgeon population.
See video of the juvenile sturgeon below
Together, both MSU and the DNR opened the Black Lake Stream Side Rearing Facility in Onaway where they have supplied sturgens to a variety of hatcheries.
Every spring, researchers, grad students and undergrads catch newly-hatched sturgeons that are less than one-inch long and raise them until August. Then, they stock Black Lake and rivers around the state with 3-month-old sturgeons.
The hatchery has helped double the adult population of lake sturgeons in Black Lake and increase the population throughout Michigan. The goal is for the fish to one day be self-sufficient
“We don’t want to be stocking lake sturgeon in perpetuity,” DNR Marquette Fisheries Research Station Manager Ed Baker said. “We want to get the population to the point that it can sustain the recreational harvest that is occurring without that harvest causing the population to decline again.”
