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Lake sturgeon

Acipenser fulvescens

FAMILY

Acipenseridae

TAXONOMY

Acipenser fulvescens Rafinesque, 1917, Lake Erie, North America.

OTHER COMMON NAMES

English: Freshwater sturgeon, Great Lakes sturgeon; French: Esturgeon jaune; Spanish: Esturión lacustre.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

The back and sides of large lake sturgeon are olive-brown to dull gray in color; juveniles are light brown with dark blotches. Most lake sturgeons today are 3–5 ft (0.9–1.5 m) long and weigh 10–80 lb (4.5–36.3 kg), but a female of nearly 8 ft (2.4 m) and 310 lb (140.6 kg) has been documented.

DISTRIBUTION

Lake sturgeons occur in the following North American drainages: Great Lakes, St. Lawrence River, Hudson Bay, and Mississippi River.

HABITAT

Lake sturgeons inhabit large rivers and lakes.

BEHAVIOR

Lake sturgeons migrate seasonally between shallow and deeper waters, particularly in the northern extent of their range. They also undertake extensive migrations, typically of around 80 mi (128.7 km), to find suitable spawning grounds in rivers.

FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET

Lake sturgeons primarily consume insects, as well as other benthic invertebrates, such as snails, clams, and crayfishes. They occasionally feed on fish eggs, algae, and small fishes.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

Lake sturgeons first spawn at 14–23 years for females and 12–20 years for males. Spawning intervals range from two to seven years in males and four to nine years in females. In the spring when ice clears, lake sturgeons migrate into smaller rivers and streams for spawning. Spawning typically takes place in swift-moving water 2–15 ft (0.6–4.6 m) deep. In the Great Lakes, lake sturgeons spawn along rocky shores in groups of two to three individuals. Females shed eggs in batches over a period of days. The eggs adhere to rocks for five to eight days before hatching.

CONSERVATION STATUS

Populations of lake sturgeons are threatened because of human exploitation, as well as habitat alteration and fragmentation that is caused by the construction of dams and roads. Lake sturgeons are listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN. They are protected by state and provincial fishing regulations and habitat restoration efforts in the United States and Canada.

SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS

Lake sturgeons were harvested for food by Native Americans before Europeans settled in North America, and commercial markets developed for the eggs and smoked flesh in the mid-1800s. Isinglass, a gelatin obtained from the swim bladder, was used to make jam and jellies, as a pottery cement, and as a waterproofing agent. Recreational fishing for lake sturgeons remains popular.

 
 
Wikipedia: lake sturgeon
Lake Sturgeon
Lake Sturgeon
Lake Sturgeon
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Acipenseriformes
Family: Acipenseridae
Genus: Acipenser
Species: A. fulvescens
Binomial name
Acipenser fulvescens
( Rafinesque, 1817)

The lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) is a North American temperate freshwater fish, one of about 20 species of sturgeon. Like other sturgeons, this species is an evolutionarily ancient bottomfeeder with a partly cartilaginous skeleton and skin bearing rows of bony plates. The fish uses its elongated, spadelike snout to stir up the sand and silt on the beds of rivers and lakes while feeding. Barbels surrounding the mouth help it sense and manipulate food. The lake sturgeon can grow to a mass of over 100 kilograms (200 lb) and a length of 2 meters (6 feet) over its long lifetime. It can reach well over 100 years of age and usually does not reach sexual maturity until its third decade of life.

The lake sturgeon has taste buds on and around its barbels near its rubbery, prehensile lips. It extends its lips to vacuum up soft live food which it swallows whole due to its lack of teeth. Its diet consists of insect larvae, worms (including leeches), small fish and other small, primarily metazoan organisms it finds in the mud.

This sturgeon is a source of caviar and isinglass, and its oil was once used to fuel steamboats. It is also a valuable gourmet food fish. Like most sturgeons, the lake sturgeon is rare now, and is protected in many areas. It has been overharvested for its various products, and has succumbed to pollution and loss of migratory waterways. It is vulnerable to population declines through overfishing due to its extremely slow reproductive cycle; most individuals caught before twenty years of age have never bred and females spawn only once every four or five years. The specific harvesting of breeding females for their roe is also damaging to population size. The lake sturgeon was once a very abundant species in the Great Lakes, so common it was caught and discarded by fishermen seeking other species, but now it is rarely seen. Few individuals ever reach the extreme old age or large size that those of previous generations often did.

Today, limited sturgeon fishing seasons are permitted in only a few areas including some locations in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. Fishing for sturgeon is allowed on Black Lake in Michigan, for example, but the fishery is limited to five total fish taken each year, each over 36 inches and taken through the ice with spears. 25 anglers are chosen by lottery each day and given a flag to raise when they have caught a fish. When five flags have been raised the season is closed for the year. Seasons have lasted as little as a few hours. There is also an annual sturgeon spearing season on Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin. It has changed from a 16 day season in the past to a season with a marked quota, however, the season can still run for the full 16 days. If 90-99% of the quota is reached on any day the season is over at 12:30 pm the following day. If 100% (or more) of the quota is reached the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources can enable an emergency stoppage rule which would end spearing at 12:30 pm the day the quota is reached. Before the season structure was changed to protect this valuable resource spearers could fish from midnight on opening day to 11:59 pm on the 16th day of the season. Now spearers start at 6:30 am and have to stop for the day at 12:30 pm. During those six hours the fishermen look down a hole that is cut into the ice with chainsaws. The hole cannot exceed 48 ft2. In order to be harvested the sturgeon must be at least 36 inches.[1] The largest sturgeon ever harvested on Lake Winnebago weighed 188 pounds and was speared by Dave Piechowski in 2004.[2]

References


 
 

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Copyrights:

Animal Encyclopedia. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Copyright © 2005 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Lake sturgeon" Read more

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