Lake sturgeon have been known to live up to 150 years — already an impressive lifespan. But a new study suggests they may live to be much older.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources was one of several agencies that co-authored the study, "Lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) growth and longevity estimated from adult capture–mark–recapture data".
Ed Baker manages the DNR’s Marquette Fisheries Research Station.
He said the study compared new and old data to figure out about how much a sturgeon grows in a year, with the results suggesting previous lifespan estimates were too low.
The new maximum lifespan estimated for males ranged up to 279 years, and for females, as high as 427 years.
Baker said the reason we don’t see sturgeon this old right now may be due to past overfishing.
“If we had not indiscriminately harvested sturgeon from the Great Lakes up until 1910 or 1900, we may have 400-year-old fish in Lake St. Clair, for example," Baker said.
"The indiscriminate harvest occurred less than 150 years ago. So, all of those 300, 400-year-old fish from 1900 were probably harvested off, and if that had not happened, we may be seeing them now today."
He added that the strict rules the state now has about sturgeon fishing are necessary to help the population bounce back.
"The reason we do that is because we know that the reproductive rate for sturgeon is very, very low compared to other fish species. The fact that they're living such a very long time is directly tied to their annual survival," Baker said.
"We now know that because they're living such a long time, their annual survival probability has to be very, very high. And those two facts alone mean we have to be very conservative with our harvest regulations."
