Ozaukee Press

We also recognize

Wisconsin Energy Foundation, the

Antoinia Foundation, Inc. and the Wisconsin DNR

for their support of the Streamside Rearing Facility and Sturgeon Project.

We also thank Wisconsin Coastal Management for their past support.

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| Sturgeon Project Background | Sturgeon Fest Event Info |

Sturgeon Restoration

Sturgeon Background:

A relic from the dinosaur age, sturgeon are roughly 200-million years old. Unlike modern-day fish, sturgeon have five rows of bone-like plates instead of scales, no backbone, and primitive shark-like tails.

The largest native fish of the Great Lakes system, lake sturgeon are threatened in 19 of the 20
states/provinces it is found.

In the early 1800s, sturgeons were slaughtered because their bony plates and size ruined commercial fishing gear. By the mid-1800s, however, sturgeons were a prized commercial catch for their eggs, used to make caviar. Over-fishing, along with dam construction, habitat loss, water pollution, and slow maturity rates, caused sturgeon populations to plummet.

Hundreds of thousands, possibly several million, sturgeons roamed Lake Michigan in the early 1800s. Researchers now estimate that only 2,000 to 5,000 adult sturgeons remain in the lake, with no record of sturgeons in the Milwaukee River since the 1890s.