Displaying items by tag: sturgeon recovery
Monday, 02 October 2023 14:09
Sturgeonfest 2023
Join in a great event on Saturday, Oct. 7 for Sturgeonfest 2023 where you will have the opportunity to see the release of baby sturgeon into the French Broad River.
When: Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The sturgeon release will begin at 11 a.m. and there are 1,000 baby sturgeon to release.
Due to habitat degradation, barriers to migration, overharvest and pollution, lake sturgeon have been almost extirpated from much of the Southeast US for more than 50 years.
In 2015, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission joined surrounding states in the Southeast Lake Sturgeon Working Group in an effort to restore lake sturgeon to the Tennessee and Cumberland river systems.
Brood stock comes from the Wolf River in Wisconsin, where the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service works with Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to collect eggs and milt for transportation and hatching at the Warm Springs National Fish Hatchery in Georgia.After hatching and growing, lake sturgeon are sent to the USFWS National Fish Hatchery at Edenton, N.C. and the Wildlife Commission’s Table Rock State Fish Hatchery for several months before release.
Approximately 2,000-9,000 juvenile lake sturgeon have been stocked annually in the French Broad River since 2015.
Dylan Owensby of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services says lake sturgeon are slow-growing, long-living fish. They might live up to 150 years and can grow more than 6 feet and up to 200 pounds. Females mature at 14 to 33 years of age and reproduce only once every four or more years. Males mature at 8 to 20 years of age. Sturgeon are bottom dwellers feeding on larval insects, crayfish and mollusks.
Learn more about lake sturgeon in the French Broad, watch Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency’s sturgeon reintroduction video and read other Hellbender articles on sturgeon.
If you are an angler in Tennessee and lucky enough to catch a sturgeon, please let TWRA This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. know (as explained in the video linked above) specially if it is a lunker.
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- sturgeonfest
- seven island state bird park boat ramp
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- southeast lake sturgeon working group
- warm springs national fish hatchery
- sturgeon reintroduction
- sturgeon recovery
- sturgeon release
- us fish and wildlife service
- lake strugeon release
- acipenser fulvescens
- tennesse wildlife resources agency
- twra
Thursday, 06 July 2023 16:56
Tennessee Aquarium brings more baby sturgeon into the world
A young lake sturgeon is viewed through a photographic aquarium after arriving at the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute. Tennessee Aquarium
Tennessee Aquarium welcomes 2,500 baby lake sturgeon as restoration effort turns 25 years old
Casey Phillips is a communications specialist at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga.
CHATTANOOGA — The approach of summer coincided with the arrival of thousands of juvenile lake sturgeon in the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute.
Biologists at the Aquarium’s freshwater field station welcomed 2,500, 2-inch babies into their care. After a steady diet of bloodworms and brine shrimp, bringing the fish to at least 6 inches, they will be reintroduced into the Tennessee River.
These tiny fish hold tremendous promise. Adult lake sturgeon may reach lengths of 8 feet and live 150 years.
“They start out really small, so it’s shocking to think how big they can get,” says reintroduction biologist Sarah Kate Bailey. “The first year of life is when they grow the quickest.
“They grow so fast while we have them here. You’ll go home for the day, come in the next morning, and they look like they’ve grown overnight.”
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- sturgeon in tennessee river
- sturgeon recovery
- sturgeon reintroduction
- casey phillips writer
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- sarah kate bailey
- clean water act of 1972
- dr anna george
- chattannoga aquarium
- chattanooga environment
- Tennessee
- warm springs natural fish hatchery
- lake sturgeon working group
- tva
- tennessee valley authority
- reservoir water release
- tennesse wildlife resources agency
- tennessee aquarium conservation institute
- tennessee aquarium
Thursday, 28 April 2022 15:14
Dinosaurs released in Chattanooga to honor Earth Day 2022
Tennessee Aquarium Director of Hospitality and Marketing Meredith Roberts and her daughter Lucy release a juvenile lake sturgeon during an Earth Day event on the Chattanooga riverfront. Tennessee Aquarium
Tennessee Aquarium releases endangered sturgeon on a fin and a prayer
CHATTANOOGA — Lake sturgeon are living fossils.
They are dinosaur fish. They have no scales. They are protected by a tough skin with boney plates, and are unchanged for millennia. They are part of a widespread related group of fish, with 23 species worldwide, and are an endangered species in Tennessee.
Tennessee Aquarium staff released some of these dinosaurs into the Tennessee River here on Earth Day, observed this year on April 22. Aquarium staff were joined by 30 students from Calvin Donaldson Elementary School and the public to release 65 juvenile lake sturgeon into the Tennessee River at Chattanooga’s Coolidge Park.
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Monday, 20 December 2021 14:13
Lunker sturgeon are out there again: report your catch to receive a certificate
Email sturgeon.reports (at) tn.gov an image of your catch-and-release with the date, location and your name to obtain your official certificate! This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
WBIR: Holston River sturgeon surging
The population of lake sturgeon, a survivor since the Cretaceous Era that barely escaped the ravages of modern dams and reservoirs, is on the upswing in the Holston River and other branches and tributaries of the Tennessee River system. The last record of the fish in the valley before restoration efforts began is about 1960, according to WBIR.
Significantly older fish were identified during a recent inventory of sturgeon, giving hope that some fish were closing in on reproductive maturity. The gradual recovery is largely the result of Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and Tennessee Valley Authority restoration efforts, WBIR reports.
“It makes our valley richer; that fish is supposed to be here,” one researcher told WBIR about the significance of the so-far successful restoration of native sturgeon habitats.
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