Save the sturgeon, save the lakes

Dead sturgeon carcasses have been washing up on the shores of Lake Michigan, setting off alarm bells for wildlife experts. Those dead fish should be alarming to us all.

National Parks wildlife biologists at Sleeping Bear Dunes say that about half a dozen dead sturgeon have washed up along Michigan beaches in recent weeks — an unusual occurrence. And even though there have been only a handful of dead fish discovered, the carcasses are worrying because the sturgeon are a threatened species and what’s killing them could be a big problem.

Sturgeon, the largest fish in the Great Lakes, can grow to up to 9 feet and 300 pounds and live for 100 years. They’re notoriously slow to reproduce, which contributes to their threatened-species status.

The fish were once plentiful in the Great Lakes, including Lake Erie, until overfishing, pollution, and loss of habitat depleted their numbers.

Recently a coalition of the Toledo Zoo & Aquarium, the University of Toledo, Lake Erie Waterkeeper, Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, USGS, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, and Purdy Fisheries Ltd. collaborated to reintroduce juvenile sturgeon in the Maumee River as part of a larger effort to repopulate Lake Erie.

They haven’t disappeared from Lake Michigan yet, and authorities still are investigating what killed the sturgeon that washed up in recent weeks. State wildlife officials suspect they may have been killed by botulism that they ingested when they ate invasive species carrying the bacteria that produces the toxin. They also suspect that rising Great Lakes water temperatures may be to blame.

Read the entire Toledo Blade editorial at https://bit. ly/31Ih2d3