These fish are monsters. They can grow up to 2.5 meters long and weigh 300 kilos or more. Decades ago, they were abundant in the Cuyahoga River and Lake Erie.
Now a conservation partnership is trying to return the endangered lake sturgeon to those waters. This is what they do.
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Pilot program releases lake sturgeon into the Cuyahoga River
A conservation group will begin stocking 1,500 lake sturgeons in the fall of 2025, according to a Facebook post from the Division of Wildlife. The group includes the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Cleveland Metroparks, Summit Metro Parks, the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District and the U.S. Geological Survey.
Last week, the group released 60 juvenile sturgeon into the Cuyahoga River. The fish have been implanted with trackers and are part of a pilot program to evaluate their movements and survival. That data will be used to decide where the sturgeon will be released next year.
In its own Facebook post, the Cuyahoga Valley National Park said the sturgeon was released at three locations along the Cuyahoga, including the entrance to the Boston Store River just north of the peninsula in Summit County.
With any luck, the young sturgeon will return to the Cuyahoga River as adults to spawn, the park’s Facebook post continues.
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What is a sturgeon? Everything about the Lake Erie fish, an endangered species
According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, lake sturgeons are found in large bodies of water with connections to smaller streams, which they need to spawn. Lacking the scales characteristic of most fish, lake sturgeon have coarse skin and bony body plates that cover their back, sides and abdomen. They can live up to 150 years.
Adult sturgeon are usually between four and six feet long and weigh between 50 and 100 pounds. According to ODNR, they can grow up to 8 feet tall and weigh more than 300 pounds. The record Ohio sturgeon, caught in 1929, weighed 216 pounds.
Historically, they were abundant in Lake Erie and would travel the Cuyahoga River to spawn, according to the National Parks Service. According to ODNR, they were also common in the Ohio River and are thought to travel the Scioto River as far upstream as Columbus. Now, a small number still live in Lake Erie, but sturgeon have not been seen in the Ohio River since 1971.
According to ODNR, they spawn in May or June in fast-flowing rivers or over shoals in lakes with clean cobbles. Females reach sexual maturity between 20 and 25 years of age and carry 4,000 to 5,000 eggs per pound of body weight. Individual sturgeon spawn once every four to seven years.
Lake sturgeon a ‘monumental milestone in Cuyahoga River recovery’
In its Facebook post, the Division of Wildlife called the sturgeon reintroduction “a monumental milestone in the recovery of the Cuyahoga River.”
The Cuyahoga is infamous as the river that caught fire when, after decades of pollution, a pile of oil-soaked logs and other debris floated into the river in June 1969, according to the National Park Service. And before that, the river had caught fire at least ten times, Smithsonian Magazine reports.
The fire received international attention, most notably through an article in Time Magazine in August of that year, and added fuel to an environmental movement that was already gaining popularity in the United States.
Today, the Cuyahoga River ecosystem supports a wide range of wildlife. Dams are removed to improve the health of the river. Bald eagles have returned and are nesting in the national park.
Do you see a sturgeon? Report it
If you spot a sturgeon, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources wants to know about it. ODNR has a tool on its site that allows you to submit a report for lake sturgeon.
This article originally appeared in Akron Beacon Journal: Fish that grow up to 8 feet tall released into Cuyahoga River, Lake Erie
