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DEC releases 6,500 sturgeon fingerlings in St. Lawrence River near Ogdensburg

Posted 10/9/14

Lake sturgeon in the St. Lawrence River during spawning season. Photo by Jennifer Hayes, 2011. The state Department of Environmental Conservation says they recently stocked lake sturgeon near in …

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DEC releases 6,500 sturgeon fingerlings in St. Lawrence River near Ogdensburg

Posted

Lake sturgeon in the St. Lawrence River during spawning season. Photo by Jennifer Hayes, 2011.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation says they recently stocked lake sturgeon near in Ogdensburg.

DEC released approximately 6,500 fingerlings (three month old, 3-to-4-inch long fish) into the St. Lawrence River at Ogdensburg on Sept. 9. Earlier in the summer, biologists stocked additional young sturgeon in the St. Lawrence River at Massena, the DEC said.

Under the restoration program, DEC with assistance from the partners collected 130,000 eggs from mature fish at the New York Power Authority’s St. Lawrence-FDR Power Project in Massena this past spring. After fertilizing, USFWS transported the eggs to their fish hatchery in Genoa, Wis., and the hatched fish were nourished until they were large enough to be stocked back into the wild. Some of the fertilized eggs were taken to the DEC’s Oneida Hatchery for hatching, raising and release into other New York waters.

Lake sturgeon once flourished in waters along New York’s northern border and provided large commercial harvests near Buffalo, the DEC said. In 1885, harvests totaled 1,800 tons. Prior to the decline in the sturgeon population, these large fish inhabited all areas of New York’s border waters on the west, north and northeast regions of the state, including Lake Erie, the Niagara River, Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence River, Lake Champlain and in several St. Lawrence River tributaries up to 60 miles upstream.

Activities to increase lake sturgeon populations include: protection from harvest, hatchery rearing, planning, habitat improvement, stocking of fingerlings, and outreach and education. In order to complete all these activities, DEC collaborates with federal partners, and the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe and the New York Power Authority, the DEC said.

There are additional sturgeon being reared at the DEC hatchery at Oneida Lake and USFWS hatchery which will be stocked in October. These include four tributaries to the St. Lawrence River, including Oswegatchie River, Black Lake and St. Regis River, plus the Genesee River downstream of Rochester and into Cayuga and Oneida Lakes, according to the DEC.

Inquiries about this threatened fish restoration program and other similar projects can be directed to DEC, Bureau of Fisheries in Watertown, at 785-2263. Additional information on lake sturgeon can be found on DEC’s website at http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/26035.html.