The Atlantic Sturgeon
The Atlantic sturgeon is a rare and endangered fish. This fish was in great abundance when the first European settlers came here. In less than 200 years, it has gone from one of the most common fish in our area, to one of the least common native fish.
Actually, the sturgeon is a living fossil and has been around for over 120 million years. It is a long, slender fish with bony plates along its body rather than scales. An adult can grow to 14 feet long and can live up to 60 years.
The Atlantic sturgeon lives in rivers and coastal waters from Canada to Florida. Over-fishing and pollution have led to massive decline. This fish is now considered threatened, endangered, and locally extinct in many of its original local habitats. More than 350,000 sturgeons would migrate to the Delaware River in the early 1900s and now fewer than 250 remain there.
Our local sturgeons migrate between the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean. These sturgeons are born in the brackish waters of the lower Hudson River. This is where they will stay for the first five or six years of their life. They average three to five feet at this age. After that, they move into the Atlantic Ocean where they stay and feed close to the shores. Females will return to the Hudson and swim upstream to spawn. They will lay 800,000 to 3.75 million eggs a year.
Which brings me to one of the main reasons that they have been over fished and are at risk of extinction: their eggs. Atlantic sturgeon eggs have been known to produce fine caviar. In the late 1800s, people flocked to the eastern United States in search of Atlantic sturgeon caviar. This was known as the “black goldrush.” In addition to their tasty eggs, sturgeon themselves are also good to eat, with a nice delicate flavor. The Atlantic sturgeon is credited with being the primary food source that saved the Jamestown settlers in 1607.
By the early 1900s, sturgeon populations had declined drastically. In 1887, close to 7 million lbs. of sturgeon were reportedly caught. By 1905, only 20,000 lbs. were caught. And in 1989, only 400 lbs. of sturgeon were caught. Today, less than 450 Atlantic sturgeons inhabit the mouth of the Hudson River.
