BARNEGAT LIGHT — Commercial fishermen are worried an endangered species listing for the Atlantic sturgeon, announced last week by the National Marine Fisheries Service and set to take effect in April, could have a major impact on their operations.
Atlantic sturgeon, a prehistoric fish that once made South Jersey the caviar capital of the world, would be the first ocean fish in the region to win endangered species protection. A smaller sturgeon, the short-nosed sturgeon, which lives in rivers, already is protected but it doesn’t end up in the nets of ocean fishermen. The nearest fish with such protections is the Atlantic salmon in New England.
“You remember the spotted owl? That’s all I have to relate it to,” said local net fisherman Kevin Wark.
Wark said the Endangered Species Act makes it illegal to land a sturgeon but he said it’s almost impossible to avoid them.
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