Sturgeon Restoration
Sturgeon Background
A relic from the dinosaur age, sturgeon are roughly 200-million years old. Unlike modern-day fish,
sturgeon have five rows of bone-like plates instead of scales, no backbone, and primitive shark-like tails.
The largest native fish of the Great Lakes system, lake sturgeon are threatened in 19 of the 20
states/provinces it is found.
In the early 1800s, sturgeons were slaughtered because their bony plates and size ruined commercial fishing gear. By the mid-1800s, however, sturgeons were a prized commercial catch for their eggs, used to make caviar. Over-fishing, along with dam construction, habitat loss, water pollution, and slow maturity rates, caused sturgeon populations to plummet.
Hundreds of thousands, possibly several million, sturgeons roamed Lake Michigan in the early 1800s. Researchers now estimate that only 2,000 to 5,000 adult sturgeons remain in the lake, with no record of sturgeons in the Milwaukee River since the 1890s.
Learn more about the life history of this important Wisconsin fish.
Don't forget to stop by the Release the Sturgeon Event on October 3, 2009 at the Thiensville Village Park...
Schedule of Events:
Click here for the schedule!
Children's activities throughout the day, including a live reptile and amphibian presentation by Randy Hetzel.
Online pre-registration for this event is here.
If you have any questions, please call 262-375-2715 for more information.