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ERIC SHARP: Volunteers can protect sturgeon on spawning run
April 30, 2004
BY ERIC SHARP
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
If you want an outdoors experience that also helps Michigan's natural resources, how about joining the citizens patrols that protect sturgeon in Cheboygan County rivers from poachers during the spawning period.
A group called Sturgeon For Tomorrow is looking for volunteers in the next six weeks to help state Department of Natural Resources conservation officers. They will maintain a 24-hour watch over places where the biggest fish in Michigan return to lay their eggs.
"When lake sturgeon migrate upstream to spawn along the rocky banks of these rivers, they are very vulnerable to poachers," said Brenda Archambo of Cheboygan, president of the conservation group.
In the past, poachers took many of the fish illegally.
Lake sturgeon can live more than 100 years. They reach a length of eight feet and exceed 200 pounds.
One sturgeon that washed up dead near Buffalo, N.Y., five years ago weighed 321 pounds.
Males reach sexual maturity at 15-20 years and spawn every other year. Females mature at 20-25 and spawn about once every four years.
These habits make sturgeon vulnerable to overfishing and poaching, and they are listed as a threatened species in Michigan.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that Lake Michigan was home to about 11 million sturgeon before the arrival of nonnative settlers, but that figure is now down to about 11,000. That's one-tenth of 1 percent of the former numbers.
The Fish and Wildlife Service and DNR are engaged in sturgeon recovery programs that include equipping fish with radio transmitters to try to learn when they enter rivers to spawn.
The fisheries researchers have netted 100-pound-plus fish in the spring in the Manistee, Detroit and St. Clair rivers, where sturgeon apparently spawn in deeper water.
But sturgeon also spawn in many other streams, and a lot of those rivers are so shallow the fish can be seen easily by people walking the riverbanks, making the sturgeon vulnerable to poachers with spears and snagging gear.
The sturgeon patrols rely on civilians to guard the rivers in the daytime.
At night, volunteers from the Michigan Army National Guard, Vietnam Veterans of America and the local chapter of Sturgeon for Tomorrow patrol with night-vision equipment.
A reward of up to $1,000 is offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any person or persons illegally taking lake sturgeon.
For more information, contact Archambo at 231-625-2776, or visit the group's Web site at www.sturgeonfortomorrow.org
April 30, 2004
BY ERIC SHARP
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
If you want an outdoors experience that also helps Michigan's natural resources, how about joining the citizens patrols that protect sturgeon in Cheboygan County rivers from poachers during the spawning period.
A group called Sturgeon For Tomorrow is looking for volunteers in the next six weeks to help state Department of Natural Resources conservation officers. They will maintain a 24-hour watch over places where the biggest fish in Michigan return to lay their eggs.
"When lake sturgeon migrate upstream to spawn along the rocky banks of these rivers, they are very vulnerable to poachers," said Brenda Archambo of Cheboygan, president of the conservation group.
In the past, poachers took many of the fish illegally.
Lake sturgeon can live more than 100 years. They reach a length of eight feet and exceed 200 pounds.
One sturgeon that washed up dead near Buffalo, N.Y., five years ago weighed 321 pounds.
Males reach sexual maturity at 15-20 years and spawn every other year. Females mature at 20-25 and spawn about once every four years.
These habits make sturgeon vulnerable to overfishing and poaching, and they are listed as a threatened species in Michigan.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that Lake Michigan was home to about 11 million sturgeon before the arrival of nonnative settlers, but that figure is now down to about 11,000. That's one-tenth of 1 percent of the former numbers.
The Fish and Wildlife Service and DNR are engaged in sturgeon recovery programs that include equipping fish with radio transmitters to try to learn when they enter rivers to spawn.
The fisheries researchers have netted 100-pound-plus fish in the spring in the Manistee, Detroit and St. Clair rivers, where sturgeon apparently spawn in deeper water.
But sturgeon also spawn in many other streams, and a lot of those rivers are so shallow the fish can be seen easily by people walking the riverbanks, making the sturgeon vulnerable to poachers with spears and snagging gear.
The sturgeon patrols rely on civilians to guard the rivers in the daytime.
At night, volunteers from the Michigan Army National Guard, Vietnam Veterans of America and the local chapter of Sturgeon for Tomorrow patrol with night-vision equipment.
A reward of up to $1,000 is offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any person or persons illegally taking lake sturgeon.
For more information, contact Archambo at 231-625-2776, or visit the group's Web site at www.sturgeonfortomorrow.org
