Sturgeon are spawning on the Black River, and they are a sight to behold. I traveled upstate last weekend to see them making their way upriver. Sturgeon were extirpated in generations gone by, but they are on their way back.
The fish are prehistoric and huge. It is a thrill just to see them. And they are most vulnerable to poaching as they spawn. Thus, the Black Lake chapter of Sturgeon for Tomorrow mounts a sturgeon guarding program every spring to protect the fish. People sign up for guard duty and camp out along the Black River for days or weeks to watch the fish swim by, calling in and documenting any suspicious human activity. The program is a massive undertaking and has virtually eliminated poaching.
Of the folks with whom I spoke at this particular sturgeon camp, deep in the upstate woods, all had participated in the sturgeon guard for years. Mary, who schedules the volunteers, takes twelve days out of her year to be present on the river. George and his wife Connie actually met while guarding sturgeon. At least one family had three generations involved in the effort.
This is important work. It helps ensure the survival of this ancient fish. People do it because it’s the right thing to do. It’s satisfying. And it’s fun.
The fish are amazing to watch. The first thing you notice is that the sturgeon spawn is a lot lower key than the images we’ve seen of salmon thrashing their way upriver, dodging bears, and clearly in the throes of a biological imperative. The sturgeon we watched were more moseyers. They would glide their long bodies a ways upstream in the fast-moving river, then let themselves slide back a ways, then maybe hold position for a while.
Sometimes they swam in the shallow water over a gravel bar. This guaranteed a great crowd reaction, as the fish were highly visible there. I expected the fish to wiggle their way back off the gravel bar as fast as they could, but they seemed in no particular hurry to move off it. Maybe the gravel felt good against their undersides.
Not everyone in the crowd the day I was there was part of the sturgeon guard. Some, like me, were there to learn more and see the fish. Researchers from Michigan State University put on quite a show for us, scheduling their team of biologists to work our bend in the river while the crowd was at its greatest.
Eager young scientists in wetsuits plied the river with nets. Really big nets. The young people would come swinging around the bend, riding the current, then disappear into a hole we were told was fourteen to fifteen feet deep. Why did they disappear? Well, the Black River is full of tannins, which turn the water dark. Especially in that hole, which is where the sturgeon liked to hang out.
And then the young people would swim back to the surface with long wriggling fish in the nets. Then they’d clear their snorkels, get their feet back under them, and make their way with the netted fish to the far side of the river. The rest of the team waited there to take measurements of the fish and to add radio frequency ID tags if the fish don’t already have them.
Over the years, this is how people learn about sturgeon, their habits, growth, and life cycles. A Canadian scientist works with the team on a related project. Sturgeon reach a certain size and then stay that size, making it hard, after that time, to figure out how old they are. The biologist from Canada is working on a way to age them chemically.
All in all, the young scientists caught a lot of fish, worked hard, and entertained us all. When they captured an especially large sturgeon, a couple of them would stand shoulder to shoulder and hold it up for us to admire. And admire it, we did. We would break into applause, from our vantage point on the bluff above the river, and the scientists would beam.
Then they’d release the fish to continue on its way. The fish, on release, didn’t bolt off. It was just as likely to drift downstream a ways before resuming its journey. Soon, the scientists, too, were on their way. This was only the fourth of seven sites along the river they were going to check that day.
How fortunate the sturgeon are that so many people care for their welfare. How fortunate we are that sturgeon still swim up the Black River to spawn.
20 May 2022