Atlantic sturgeon to get protection

Credit: 2010, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Atlantic sturgeon, like this 70-pounder found in the James River, will be designated an endangered species.

By: Times-Dispatch Staff | From wire reports
Published: February 02, 2012

Atlantic sturgeon in the Chesapeake Bay and elsewhere will be designated an endangered species, federal regulators announced Tuesday.

Effective April 6, the listing will provide greater protection for the dinosaur-like fish and may add irksome regulations for the commercial fishing industry.

It has been illegal since 1998 to catch sturgeon in waters from Maine to Florida. But an environmental group, the Natural Resources Defense Council, asked the government in 2009 to further protect the fish under the Endangered Species Act.

"The Atlantic sturgeon survived the ice age but is now threatened with extinction," Kate Slusark, a Natural Resources Defense Council spokeswoman, said in a statement Tuesday. "The federal government is giving this remarkable fish a fighting chance to live on into the 21st century."

A cousin that also lives in Virginia waters, the shortnose sturgeon, already is declared endangered. Once common throughout the bay and Atlantic coast, sturgeon are known for their bony plates, called scutes. They can weigh 800 pounds and grow to 14 feet.

Prized for their eggs, which are sold as caviar, and their skin, which was worked as leather and turned into clothing, book-binding and other products, sturgeon were heavily fished during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Fishing, combined with loss of habitat, pollution and ship strikes, decreased the population, leading Virginia to outlaw commercial harvesting in 1974. A national ban followed in 1998.

Despite the protection, sturgeon have been slow to recover. A 2007 report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which made the announcement Tuesday, said there were fewer than 300 spawning females in the James River.

Scientists say because sturgeon can live for 60 years, they are slow to reproduce.

Federal officials say they will work with scientists and fishermen who study sturgeon in the bay so their research can continue amid new protections afforded endangered animals.

In addition to the Chesapeake, the endangerment listing includes four other distinct population segments, according to a NOAA statement. A sixth segment, in the Gulf of Maine, will be listed as threatened.

NOAA said it will try not to affect other fisheries.