# Study sturgeon larva in Manistee River



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Conservationists study sturgeon larva in Manistee River 

As part of an effort to study the endangered and threatened lake sturgeon, tribal scientists and technicians are collecting drifting sturgeon larva in nets set at varying depths at Sawdust Hole near Brethren. They are also picking up other drifters as well salmonids (trout), sucker, lamprey and hexagenia to study the relationship between fellow drifters. Preliminary data already shows that sucker, salmonid and sturgeon larva make great travel companions. 

http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/mich...I--Exchange-RiverDri&&news&newsflash-michigan


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## steelslam (Apr 8, 2001)

what are sucker,salmon an sturgon larva???? i never saw a bug called that.


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## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

I was invited up to attend this sturgeon ceremony, but couldn't make it.

Stocking surgeon: Tribe hopes releases will help rehabilitate struggling species

http://www.mlive.com/news/muchronicle/index.ssf?/base/news-7/1125333908208480.xml&coll=8

Monday, August 29, 2005 By Jeff Alexander CHRONICLE STAFF WRITER

Robert Hardenburgh gently cupped his hands around the tiny fish, lifted it toward the heavens and -- through prayer -- asked the Creator to bless what was a momentous event. 

Hardenburgh, natural resources director for the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, then crouched down to the edge of the Manistee River and allowed the 6-inch-long lake sturgeon to slip through his fingers. The fish slowly swam into the river's deep, murky water, beginning a journey that scientists hope will take it and 50 other baby sturgeon into Lake Michigan, and someday, back into the Manistee River to spawn. 

The release of sturgeon into the Manistee River by the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians is part of an ambitious effort to rehabilitate a Great Lakes fish species struggling to survive. A tribal biologist said he believes the Little River Band is the first group in the world to successfully raise lake sturgeon in a portable fish-rearing facility adjacent to a river.

"I hope that someday, when I'm old and gray, I can come back to the banks of this river and see dozens and dozens of sturgeon," said Marty Holtgren, an inland fisheries biologist for the Manistee-based Little River Band of Ottawa Indians. "Next year, if we see just a few of the fish we're releasing today, I'll consider it a success." 

Sturgeon have roamed the world's lakes and oceans for more than 100 million years, long before dinosaurs went extinct. The giant fish once dominated the Great Lakes, but were driven to the brink of extinction in the 1800s by commercial fishermen and logging operations that buried rocky fish spawning grounds in rivers under blankets of sand. 

Lake sturgeon can grow to 8 feet long and weigh as much as 300 pounds. But the fish are scarce: scientists believe there are between 1,000 and 3,000 sturgeon in Lake Michigan, down from 11 million thought to live in the lake in 1800. 

Scientists from around the Great Lakes hope to increase the sturgeon population by restoring historic breeding grounds in the region's large rivers, such as the Manistee and Muskegon. 

There are two ways to immediately increase the number of sturgeon, Holtgren said: take thousands of eggs from a female fish and raise the babies in a hatchery; or capture larval sturgeon after they hatch in a river and raise them in water taken from that same river. 

Holtgren said raising sturgeon in their native water, even if it's only a carefully monitored tank of water from the river, maintains genetic diversity and allows the fish to acquire a scent of their birthplace. Learning the scent of a river, called imprinting, is a natural process that lures migratory sturgeon back to spawn when they mature in 10 to 25 years. 

The Little River Band is taking an innovative approach to restoring the sturgeon population in the Manistee. The tribe uses a portable fish-rearing facility, housed in a small trailer near the river, to grow larval sturgeon captured in nets in the Manistee.

Over the course of three months, the half-inch-long fish are kept in small tanks filled with Manistee River water and fed brine shrimp from the Great Salt Lake in Utah. When the sturgeon are 6 inches long -- big enough for most to survive in the wild -- they're released into the river. 

"It's been a struggle because this has never been done before," Holtgren said. "To my knowledge, this is the first portable stream-side sturgeon-rearing facility in the world." 

The tribe's goal is to have a stable population of 750 mature sturgeon capable of spawning in the Manistee River by 2030, Holtgren said.

This is the second year the tribe, which operates the Little River Casino in Manistee, has released sturgeon into the river. 

Unlike most fish releases, where biologists pump thousands of fish out of a tanker truck and into a lake or stream with little fanfare, the sturgeon release Saturday was a sacred tribal ceremony complete with prayer, a pipe ceremony, a traditional drum and singing. 

"There was a point in our history when sturgeon was very important for our survival. Now we're at a point in time where we are important for their survival," said Lee Sprague, the tribe's ogema, or chief. 

"This is our way of giving back to the sturgeon some of the things they had before lumbering came in," Sprague said. "This is a new relationship." 

The tribe was able to capture sturgeon in the Manistee and raise the fish because the Little River Band is a sovereign nation, essentially a country within the United States. The tribe shares authority over fish populations in some area rivers and parts of Lake Michigan with state and federal agencies. 

Holtgren said he hopes the tribe can someday use its portable fish incubator to increase the number of sturgeon in other rivers, including the Muskegon. But there's a catch: There may not be enough sturgeon born in the Muskegon each spring to support a stream-side fish-growing operation. 

Bolstering the Muskegon River's sturgeon population may require collecting eggs and raising the fish from birth in a hatchery. That approach is somewhat risky because it could reduce genetic diversity among a strain of sturgeon unique to the Muskegon. That could lead to in-breeding among the fish, which could cause mutations and disease. 

State and federal fish biologists consider the 47 miles of the Muskegon River between Croton Dam and Lake Michigan prime sturgeon habitat. But officials at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources have said the agency will proceed cautiously to protect the genetic diversity of the Muskegon stock. 

Holtgren said the Little River Band also is interested in increasing the number of sturgeon in the Muskegon River. The tribe has the authority to engage in fish management activities in the Muskegon because it is part of an area covered by a 19th century treaty between the tribe and the federal government.


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