ENVIRONMENT Ancient species show signs of recovery in U.S.
CHARLES CITY, Va. — Sturgeon were America’s vanishing dinosaurs, armorplated beasts that crowded the nation’s rivers until mankind’s craving for caviar pushed them to the edge of extinction.
More than a century later, some populations of the massive bottomfeeding fish are showing signs of recovery in the dark corners of U.S. waterways.
Increased numbers are appearing in the cold streams of Maine, the lakes of Michigan and Wisconsin and the coffee-colored waters of Florida’s Suwannee River.
“It’s really been a dramatic reversal of fortune,” said Greg Garman, a Virginia Commonwealth University ecologist who studies Atlantic sturgeon in Virginia’s James River. “We didn’t think they were there, frankly. Now, they’re almost every place we’re looking.”
Following the late 1800s caviar rush, America’s nine sturgeon species and subspecies were plagued by pollution, dams and overfishing.
Scientists have been finding sturgeon in places where they were thought to be long gone. And they’re seeing increased numbers of them in some rivers because of cleaner water, dam removals and fishing bans.
But the U.S. sturgeon population is only a tiny fraction of what it once was — and the health of each species and regional populations vary widely.
Across America, dams still keep some sturgeon populations low by blocking ancient spawning routes. And the fish face newer threats such as rising water temperatures from climate change and the sharp propellers of cargo ships.
Environmentalists warn that more conservation efforts are still needed.
“They’ve survived relatively unchanged for 200 million years,” said Jeff Miller, a senior conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, which is planning a lawsuit seeking federal safeguards for sturgeon in the Great Lakes and Mississippi River watersheds. “If they’re going to survive us, they’re going to need additional protection.”