11,000 Endangered Sturgeon Reintroduced to Illinois Lake with Frozen Bloodworms

(Photo : Hoang Dinh Nam / Getty Images)
The waters of Illinois are now repopulated with endangered sturgeon babies and some frozen bloodworms.

In an Illinois lake, authorities have reintroduced 11,000 baby endangered sturgeon along with frozen bloodworms for feeding.

11,000 Sturgeon Babies and Their Frozen Bloodworms

Topeka's Jake Wolf Memorial fish hatchery acquired 11,000 young lake sturgeon earlier this month. The lake sturgeon is going to be released so that Illinois waters can support its repopulation.

The Jake Wolf natural resources coordinator, Frank Sladek, reports that the young sturgeon are consuming enormous amounts of frozen bloodworms. To store hundreds of pounds of food for the new arrivals, the state fish hatchery has set aside an entire refrigerator and freezer.

Sladek expressed amazement over the appetite of the baby sturgeon, describing them as "ravenous".

Endangered Lake Sturgeon

Sladek claims that because the 2-inch newborns are always moving, they are a great deal of fun to watch. The lake sturgeon are being grown in aquariums indoors out of the summer heat. Despite the heat waves, Jake Wolf's water cooling system keeps the fish comfortable.

Over 15 million lake sturgeon, a "prehistoric species," lived in the Great Lakes region in the 1800s, when buffalo herds roamed the plains.

Sturgeon, according to him, are living fossils that have existed on this planet for an extremely, extremely long time.

The large snouts of bottom-feeding lake sturgeon enable them to suction up creatures that are on their path. Sladek claims that although lake sturgeons have a maximum length of 8 feet, reaching that size takes years. The armor-like look of lake sturgeon isn't due to scales but rather a layer that resembles teeth enamel. A lake sturgeon's lifespan can reach 100 years.

Threats and Calls for Conservation

Population decline has been caused by commercial fishing, dams, habitat loss, and habitat degradation. The demise of the lake sturgeon, according to Mark Fink from the Center for Biological Diversity, has been comparable to the killing of the buffalo. The quantity of these magnificent fish that formerly existed is hard to even fathom. Real protection for them and their habitats is required to ensure their long-term survival.

As an indicator species, lake sturgeon are crucial to the Great Lakes ecosystem. Only a clear pond, lake, or river can support them. They are reliant on environmentally sensitive aquatic invertebrates.

The opportunity to reintroduce the species into the waters of Illinois and stock them in rivers and tributaries in which they once spawned, in Sladek's opinion, makes the reintroduction effort very exciting.

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Reintroduction to the Wild

It will be difficult to repopulate the extinct species because, according to The National Wildlife Federation, lake sturgeon require 15 to 25 years to reach spawning age. Sturgeons do not always spawn as adults. They have lost the great bulk of their spawning runs.

The Jake Wolf Memorial Hatchery faces difficulty in preserving as many baby fish as possible so that the species can be released into the wild. According to Sladek, the precise location of their final release has not yet been determined. Potential stocking sites are being carefully considered by Jake Wolf experts.

Sladek asserts that because there are now modest populations of lake sturgeon in some areas of the Mississippi River, the Mississippi River has been mentioned as one of the primary stocking sites, Advantage News reports.

Anglers should be informed that the Lake Sturgeon is a legally protected, state-endangered species. In the state of Illinois, Lake Sturgeon is not allowed to be harvested in any way. If one is captured, it must be immediately released, says the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.