Lake Sturgeon
Lake Sturgeon - (Acipenser fulvescens)
Length:3 to 5 feet
Weight:10 to 80 pounds
Coloring:olive-brown to grey on back and sides, with white belly
Common Names:freshwater sturgeon, rock sturgeon,bony sturgeon, smoothback
Found in Lakes:Michigan, Huron, Ontario, Erie and Superior
These "living fossils" of fish evolution once ranged widely
throughout the Mississippi River, the Great Lakes and the Hudson River.
Occasionally, the lake sturgeon's dark form can be discerned in reedy
shallows or near river mouths. The glimpse is as rare as it is startling.
In the last century, this large, bony-plated animal, browsing along the
bottom, was often regarded as a nuisance because it became entangled in
and ripped commercial fishing nets. Only later did the sturgeon become
prized for its meat, eggs (caviar) and oil. A gelatin from the inner lining
of its air bladder was used to make isinglass--a substance used as a clarifying
agent in jellies, glues and in the isinglass windows of carriages and
early cars.
Unfortunately, the sturgeon was exceptionally vulnerable to overfishing, largely because of its slow reproductive cycle. The female requires more than 20 years to mature, and then it spawns only every four to six years during its 50-year lifespan.
copyright 2001 University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute
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