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News photo by Julie Riddle 4-year-old Madeleine Larson releases a sturgeon fry in the upper reaches of the Black River near Onaway on Saturday.
After missing the 2020 release due to COVID-19 restrictions, researchers and a host of children sent hundreds of sturgeon fry en route to Black Lake as part of an ongoing effort to bolster the population status of protected species.
Several hundred people visited the Black River sturgeon hatchery outside of Onaway – which bills itself as Michigan’s sturgeon capital – on Saturday and helped release the three-inch fry.
“This fish, one day, should be bigger than your father,” said Tim Cwalinski, senior fisheries biologist at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, as he placed a small fish in the cupped hands of two visiting boys. the hatchery.
Children traditionally participate in the annual release of the ancient species with bony plates instead of scales.
News photo by Julie Riddle Children gather as Tim Cwalinski, senior fisheries biologist at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, places a sturgeon fry in the hands of curious visitors to the Black River Sturgeon Hatchery near Onaway on Saturday.
About 20 young people gathered around a bucket on the shore of the Black River on Saturday, near its mouth in Black Lake, waiting their turn to send a fish to its new home.
Small but fierce, strong and heavy for their size, the little sturgeons pointed their long snouts in the air with calm determination as small hands gently transferred them to their new home.
Pressed to tell the fry to “live long and prosper” and to bless the little creatures on their journey, the children marveled as the fry explored the water near their toes.
“They really don’t know what to do,” said a young assistant, pushing a small fish into larger waters.
“See you in 25,” said an adult nearby to a fish. “Come on, go ahead and have babies.”
News Photo by Julie Riddle Tim Cwalinski, senior fisheries biologist at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, on Saturday transfers sturgeon fry to a truck that will be released into the headwaters of the Black River near Onaway.
The 498 sturgeons released into Black Lake and 490 released into Mullet Lake in Cheboygan County on Saturday will help replenish an important cultural and ecological resource, according to Douglas Larson, a research assistant at Michigan State University which operates the Onaway Hatchery.
Lake sturgeon reproduce millions of eggs each year, but these eggs sometimes lead to almost no adult fish.
“Quite literally, anything that can eat sturgeon larvae does,” Larson said.
Researchers studying the larvae at the Onaway Hatchery hope to find keys to increasing sturgeon survival rates.
Students in the hatchery classroom program contribute to sturgeon studies by raising and studying fish. This year, students kept an eye out for cameras recently installed in the river near the hatchery, looking for known predators of young sturgeon.
News photo by Julie Riddle Children release sturgeon fry in the upper Black River near Onaway on Saturday.
Other recent research at the hatchery will help scientists understand how sturgeons feel their way to the waters they were born in up to 25 years later and how extreme weather or water levels affect on how often adult sturgeons return to their home waters to spawn.
The students collecting data for researchers and youngsters eagerly releasing fish that can grow to 200 pounds and 7 feet long and live 100 years are the next generation of biologists who will protect the sturgeon, listed as an endangered species. disappearance in Michigan. , Larson said.
News photo by Julie Riddle Children release sturgeon fry in the upper Black River near Onaway on Saturday.
News photo by Julie Riddle Children release sturgeon fry in the upper Black River near Onaway on Saturday.
News photo by Julie Riddle A sturgeon fry is released into the headwaters of the Black River near Onaway on Saturday.
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