Anadromous fish are born in fresh water, but spend majority of their lives in the ocean, returning to fresh water only to spawn. Amanda Higgs, a state biologist who’s been tagging and netting Hudson sturgeon for more than a decade, was out on the water working nearby that day. Fox of Delaware State University, have extensively used this sonar system in sturgeon habitat elsewhere along the Atlantic Coast and in the Republic of Georgia, home to half a dozen species of sturgeon, all deeply endangered, including Huso huso, which can reach lengths of 18 feet and is the source of Beluga caviar. Are they making a comeback? The shortnose sturgeon is also found in the Hudson.

But now, it was unimaginable given what this species had endured. New York closed its fishery in 1996; in 1998 the Atlantic coast states jointly enacted a 40-year moratorium on sturgeon fishing. But there was no mistaking the image.

A PIT tag is implanted if the fish doesn't have one. Atlantic sturgeon live in rivers and coastal waters from Canada to Florida.

“They’re the most beautiful thing in the world,” Gabrielson said. The anchorage, established in 1999, happened to be located in a stretch of the Hudson that is one of the most important spawning grounds in its range along the coast from Florida through Canada’s maritime provinces.

It reminds travelers that these smaller streams are intimately connected to the mainstem of the Hudson, and that the health of the river depends on the health of its watershed. Thirty fish were tagged with sonic tags to learn more about spawning locations and movement while in the river. This graph was produced for NYSDEC by Mark DuFour (methods and data unpublished, in press). Hatched in the freshwater of rivers, Atlantic sturgeon head out to sea as juveniles, and return to their birthplace to spawn, or lay eggs, when they reach adulthood. If a passive integrated transponder (PIT) tag is not present, one is implanted. Atlantic sturgeon were once plentiful but then nearly wiped out. Photograph by Joel Sartore, National Geographic Photo Ark/Nat Geo Image Collection, 14-foot fish spotted in river, giving hope to vanished giant’s return, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/03/14-foot-atlantic-sturgeon-fish-hudson-river-endangered-species.html, International Union for Conservation of Nature, “’Albany beef’ trade wanes as Hudson sturgeon dwindle, Running Silver: Restoring Atlantic Rivers and their Great Fish Migrations, humpback whale that was in the lower Hudson. Young fish may stay in the Hudson up to eight years before going to sea, where they wander in and out of rivers north to Canada and south to Georgia. The discovery of a sturgeon so large in the river I’ve lived along, and reported on, since 1991 deeply excited me. Adding to the challenge, sturgeon, like shad and striped bass, face a kind of double jeopardy when they leave their spawning rivers and, as adults, cruise the Atlantic Coast. Unlike a simple depth sounder, this “side-scan” sonar sweeps high-frequency beams of sound out at angles, producing a detailed three-dimensional portrait of the river bed and any decent-size fish—and often precise enough to reveal the sturgeon’s distinctive profile, as low-slung as a Formula One car. “When I first saw it, I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’” Madsen recalled. Data were stored and at the programmed date, the tag came to the surface and transmitted the data to NYSDEC. Any recovery in the Hudson and elsewhere along the East Coast will inevitably take time. Future models to calculate relative abundance will incorporate this environmental conditions. Within the past few years, however, the fish have become scarce and shy.”. Females born then are returning to spawn now, and numbers of juvenile Atlantic sturgeon are increasing. DEC's Hudson River Fisheries Unit takes the lead on this work, conducting annual studies of juvenile and adult sturgeon populations in the estuary. Adults spawn in fresh water from May through July, mainly from Hyde Park to Catskill. “Size matters,” said Jane Lubchenco, a marine ecologist at Oregon State and a former administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. A 1927 article reflected another pulse of overfishing with this title: “’Albany beef’ trade wanes as Hudson sturgeon dwindle.”. As of this writing (July 22, 2015) there are concerns that the construction of the bridge to replace the Tappan Zee connecting Rockland Count… One day last June, two researchers were towing a special sonar system up and down the Hudson River near Hyde Park, New York, the site of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s home, when they saw something pleasantly shocking. That’s a size that, even decades ago, even a century ago, was considered a rarity. Biologists estimate a sturgeon that length could easily weigh 800 pounds. Sturgeon were being imported to New York from as far away as the Kennebec River in Maine and Saint Johns River in Florida. An August 1881 item used the term of the day, “Albany beef,” to describe heavy demand for sturgeon meat: “In former years the catch of the sturgeon in the Hudson River was amply sufficient to supply all demands for the beef at low prices. One exciting aspect of knowing the Hudson has female sturgeon that large is that bigger females produce vastly more eggs than smaller ones—up to 8 million at the high end. The Atlantic Coast Cooperative Network (leaves DEC's website) allows for data sharing along the coast on all species of tagged fishes. They were helping state biologists assess whether the spawning or foraging of a fabled and endangered bottom-feeding denizen, the Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus), was being disrupted when commercial vessels dropped anchor in a spot designated as a waiting area to manage ship traffic. Sturgeon eggs (a prime source of caviar) and meat (tasty when smoked) make these fish commercially valuable. The largest of New York's sturgeons, Atlantic sturgeon in the Hudson River occasionally reach over 200 pounds in weight and six to eight feet in length. Spawning locations of Atlantic sturgeon within the Hudson River Estuary remain poorly delineated. In 2008, more adult males began to appear in the Hudson, likely born in 1996. In New York, mature males immigrate into the Hudson River in early spring, and females follow approximately one month later. The standardized index is run through a model that incorporates environmental conditions into the calculations. In initial attempts to calculate the annual gill net survey index, survey catches seem to be affected by varying environmental conditions, including water temperature, salinity and distance to salt front. They are armored with bony plates, evidence of a lineage extending back to the age of dinosaurs.

The moratorium will offer protection until these youngsters mature and launch a third generation 20 years from now. The Atlantic sturgeon can take a couple of decades to reach spawning age. Females return closer to age 20. In February 2012, the Atlantic sturgeon was listed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In 2003-2005, the NYSDEC and USFWS collaborated to develop a method to track changes in abundance of juvenile Atlantic sturgeon over time.

The life history of Atlantic sturgeon makes monitoring of population trends through time difficult. Four distinct population segments(DPSs) were listed as endangered (New York Bight, Chesapeake Bay, Carolina, and South Atlantic) while one DPS was listed as threatened (Gulf of Maine).

However, it is doing well in the Hudson as compared to the rest of its range. If you have questions or would like additional information about anything you see on this page, please contact us using the email on the right. Learn more about satellite tagging. Madsen estimates there could be less than 1,000 sturgeon … All rights reserved. As a result, New York closed its sturgeon fishery in 1996, and in 2012, the Atlantic sturgeon was listed as an endangered species. One shad fisherman, Bob Gabrielson, visibly upset by this, told me how the armor-like knobbly “scutes” along the bodies of the youngest fish, not yet dulled by wear and tear, gleamed like hammered silver.

“This makes me think we often don’t really know that much about the status of sturgeon in any river,” Waldman said.