February 12, 2015 — Once abundant in the rivers of eastern North America, the Atlantic sturgeon has suffered a catastrophic crash in its populations. But new protections under the U.S. 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. Its back was dark brown, its belly cream. Five rows of bony plates ran the length of its thin body to the shark-like tail. Four barbels covered with taste buds dangled from its flat snout in front of the sucker mouth. At 20 inches it was a baby. Adults can
This fish was an Atlantic sturgeon — the largest, longest-lived creature that reproduces in North American rivers collected by the Atlantic. Its species is at least 70 million years senior to my own.
Yet my species threatens it with extinction.
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. The Gulf of Maine segment was listed as threatened while the New York Bight, Chesapeake Bay, Carolina, and South Atlantic segments were listed as endangered.
This action has released a torrent of funding that is allowing researchers from Maine to Florida to identify and mitigate human-caused mortality.
Read the full story from Yale Environment 360