The fish are telling us things we never expected. Its back was dark brown, its belly cream. “About 15 years ago we declared the Atlantic sturgeon extirpated in the Chesapeake Bay system, and much to my delight we were very wrong ,” says David Secor, fisheries ecologist at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. The good news: Because we know about the threat we may be able to lessen it, perhaps by modifying disposal, sale, or application of at least some of the disrupters. Atlantic sturgeon didn’t make it for 70 million years without being resilient. The State of New Jersey has allowed the plant to operate without a discharge permit since 2006, making it impossible for van Rossum and her allies to vet permit requirements relevant to fish kills. For 30 years biologist Tom Savoy of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection told people that Atlantic sturgeon had been extirpated from the Connecticut River 200 years ago. Now thanks to passage of the federal Clean Water Act in 1972, oxygen levels are up, and the Delaware Basin Commission is pushing for higher water-quality standards. In 2008, more adult males began to appear in the Hudson, likely born in 1996. Savoy said Atlantic sturgeon were declared an endangered species in 2012. Now the agency figures there are fewer than 100. But new protections under the U.S. Four barbels covered with taste buds dangled from its flat snout in front of the sucker mouth. Male sturgeon will spawn at 1 to 5 year intervals while females spawn every 2 to 5 years. Acipenser oxyrhynchus oxyrhynchus. Endangered Species Act are giving reason for hope for one of the world’s oldest fish species.Water from the iced-over Connecticut River numbed my hands as I cradled a hard, scaleless fish at the U.S. Geological Survey’s anadromous fish laboratory at Turners Falls, Massachusetts. Females don’t reach sexual maturity until they’re about 16, and they lay eggs only every three to five years. Its species is at least 70 million years senior to my own. Many of the habitat impediments, such as dams and locks prevent sturgeon from being able to spawn as they can no longer swim to their spawning grounds. Adults can measure 14 feet and weigh 800 pounds. The populations are managed under a plan created by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) after coordinating with state regulations.
MATT BALAZIK/VCU RICE RIVERS CENTERResearchers capture a sturgeon in Chesapeake Bay, where they were presumed to be wiped out. I had my permit the day of the ESA ruling. Maybe the greatest value of the Endangered Species Act — greater even than information it generates about how and where animals live and the threats they face — is the knowledge that it’s not too late to save them.
While that threat is still very real, it was reduced on February 6, 2012, when the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) protected five “distinct population segments” of Atlantic sturgeon under the Endangered Species Act. He never found it, but when he was looking he was astonished to see adult sturgeon breaching. We get a lot of animals cut in half.” More dredging by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will further shrink spawning and nursery habitat by blasting away rock ledge critical to egg and fry development and by causing saltwater to move further upstream where habitat shrinks anyway as the river narrows. “One thing NMFS did that I think is unheard of is that they actually brought on additional staff prior to listing,” says Fox. Adults are crushed against intake screens. And you don’t have to cut them much slack, as Matt Balazik, a fisheries biologist with Virginia Commonwealth University, has discovered. Silt from watershed development dooms them. Sturgeon typically eat a variety of bottom-dwelling aquatic organisms such as mollusks, worms, snails, small fish, and other invertebrates.
While the agency has traditionally been less than aggressive in defense of depleted fish, it may be making progress. It is illegal to fish for, catch or harvest Atlantic sturgeon or their eggs.
Atlantic sturgeon live in the ocean and spawn and spend their first few years in freshwater. “This is a species that really needed the protection,” he said. Once abundant in the rivers of eastern North America, the Atlantic sturgeon has suffered a catastrophic crash in its populations. But this would probably cost $400 to $800 million, and PSEG is loath to make the investment. All it can do is consult with the Corps of Engineers under Section 7 of the ESA. “They could go extinct in our lifetime.