# Sturgeon Fall Fingerling Release in Kalamazoo River



## Jay Wesley (Mar 2, 2009)

*Join us in celebration on Saturday, September 24, 2011 at the New Richmond Bridge Park at 3160 Allegan Rd, Fennville. The sturgeon eggs were collected during the Spring spawning season from the Kalamazoo River and reared in the new hatchery facility* *located in New Richmond*. *The juvenile sturgeon are now approaching 10 inches, have been tagged and will be released in the river to make their way to Lake Michigan. This is your opportunity to see a threatened species up close. This new class will not return again until maturity in about 20 years.
The schedule of family events will include:
*

*10 am Interpretive tours of the park and hatchery and Kid's fishing derby*
*12 pm Sturgeon release ceremony to be officiated by the Gun Lake Tribe*
*1 pm Swing bridge turning with Dixie band entertainment*
*2 pm Program ends 
*
_*Partners participating in this event include the Kalamazoo River Sturgeon for Tomorrow, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Gun Lake Tribe, Wolf Lake Hatchery, Allegan County Parks and Michigan Sea Grant.*_ 

Kalamazoo Sturgeon For Tomorrow website:

http://kazoosturgeon.org/


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## Boozer (Sep 5, 2010)

That is awesome, any chance of this ever being done on the Joe?


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## Jay Wesley (Mar 2, 2009)

We have been able to use broodstock from the Kalamazoo for these fish to help preserve genetics and the Kzoo population. We have not been able to find enough adult sturgeon in the St. Joe to do the same thing. To restore the St. Joe, we may have to use another source for eggs. Perhaps the Muskegon. 

The St. Joe is on our list but lower priority right now because of the lack of spawning adults. 

Hopefully, we can get that population going in the near future.


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## JimP (Feb 8, 2002)

The Little River Tribal rearing station on the Big Manistee was almost without baby sturgeon this year. They did manage to capture and bring 5 hatchlings to release size.
This was last years release of a couple dozen...cute little fellas.


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## LilyDuck (Dec 29, 2004)

Kind of bummed that I had plans made on this day. I was excited to see the trailer setup in May when we did our first fall float of the year. Really excited to see that they had over 100 little guys in the blue barrels just a few weeks. If you havent seen the operation "trailer" its pretty neat and simplistic. 

I cannot remeber the gentlemens name that we spoke to but this is a long term project that they hope to have in place for a while as long as funding is available. Would be cool to see one down here rather than seeing them shoot out of the water in Black lake.

~LD


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## Spanky (Mar 21, 2001)

what a great event Jay. It was great to see you again. I was suprised to see how many folks came, and how far away they parked and walked.

Your staff and the other volunteers did a great job.That whole area sure has turned into a very nice park for everyone to use!


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## samsteel (Oct 6, 2008)

jimp said:


> The Little River Tribal rearing station on the Big Manistee was almost without baby sturgeon this year. They did manage to capture and bring 5 hatchlings to release size.


yikes, my old man snagged one up by Rainbow a couple weeks ago crankin for kings:yikes: it was just barely hooked in the skin, didn't go past the barb.....They released it right away and it swam away just fine, pretty crazy though.


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