Welcome to Week CLXXVIII of ‘Fishing Parkland Shorelines’. Like most of us I am a novice fisherman, loving to fish, but far from an expert. In the following weeks I’ll attempt to give those anglers who love to fish but just don’t have access to a boat, a look at some of the options in the Yorkton area where you can fish from shore, and hopefully catch some fish.
There is a fish species which resides in Prairies waters which I have long been rather fascinated by.
Yet it is one I have not yet hooked into, and actually I’m not really sure I ever want to. The fish is so ancient in lineage and appearance and increasingly rare that I’m not sure I would want to disturb one and force it into a protracted fight. It would ultimately, I think, create sad thoughts about whether the battle and landing might ultimately cause the great fish to die once released. And so, I simply read articles on the sturgeon, and marvel at the strange looking critter with its decidedly prehistoric appearance. So this week I want to delve into the lake sturgeon just a little for readers.“Lake Sturgeon are a slow-growing and long-lived freshwater fish. … Individual Lake Sturgeon have been known to live up to 150 years old, but such ages are rare today,” detailed the Fisheries and Oceans Canada website at www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca. And they can be big fish thanks to their long lives. “Although Lake Sturgeon have been recorded to reach over three metres (m) in length and 180 kilograms (kg) in weight, they are now rarely found over 1.5 m in length or 35 kg in weight,” noted the Fisheries and Oceans Canada website.
In terms of that prehistoric look, it hearkens to ocean predator fish.
“The Lake Sturgeon has a cartilaginous skeleton, and a shark-like tail. Rather than fish scales, the juveniles and larval Lake Sturgeon have external bony scutes, which are less pronounced on larger individuals,” detailed the website.
“The head has a pointed snout with four pendulous barbels, and a ventrally located mouth. It is dark to light brown in colour on its’ back and sides, with a lighter coloured belly …
“Lake Sturgeon often move short distances (one to 20 km) between feeding sites in large rivers and lakes and into spawning and overwintering areas, but are able to migrate longer distances (greater than 100 km). Unlike most fish, Lake Sturgeon do not sexually mature and begin spawning until they are relatively old, approximately 15 years for males, and 25 years for females. There is also some evidence to suggest that spawning may not take place every year during the reproductive years.”
The sturgeon was once more widespread in the Canadian Prairie region than it is today.
“The range of Lake Sturgeon once extended from western Alberta to the St. Lawrence drainage in Quebec, and from southern Hudson Bay drainages to the lower Mississippi drainage,” describes the Fisheries and Oceans Canada website. “Their abundance and historic range in the United States are much reduced and they are considered endangered in many states.
“In Canada, Lake Sturgeon occur in rivers around southern Hudson Bay, in the Great Lakes, and in inland lakes and rivers from Alberta to Quebec.”
In Saskatchewan the lake sturgeon is most notable in the Saskatchewan River system.
As you will have noted the material suggests lake sturgeon numbers are in decline.
“Human activities represent the most important threat to Lake Sturgeon,” detailed the Fisheries and Oceans Canada website. “Historically, commercial fishing caused precipitous declines in many Lake Sturgeon populations. None of these populations has fully recovered.
“More recently, the direct and indirect effects of dams pose important threats. Dams result in habitat loss and fragmentation, altered flow regimes, and may increase mortality by entrainment in turbines.
“Habitat degradation resulting from poor land use and agricultural practices also has had an adverse impact on many populations.
“Other threats may include contaminants, poaching and the introduction of non-native species.”
So it’s not surprising that there is now a Saskatchewan River Sturgeon Management Board (SRSMB).
The SRSMB is dedicated to preventing further decline of the lake sturgeon population in the Saskatchewan River between E.B. Campbell Dam in Saskatchewan and Grand Rapids Dam in Manitoba. It is a group of stakeholders from communities, First Nations, industry and government who have been working together for over a decade with the common purpose of recovering lake sturgeon stocks in part of the Saskatchewan River.
The long-term objective is to have a Saskatchewan River lake sturgeon population that is self-sustaining and capable of supporting the traditional uses of local Aboriginal people.
The SRSMB website at www.saskriversturgeon.ca detailed some rather interesting background on these fascinating fish, and their interaction with people since the time of farm settlement.
“Early settlers considered sturgeon a nuisance fish when caught in their nets set for more desirable fish like walleye and whitefish,” detailed the website. “The sturgeon were discarded, or sometimes fed to pigs or used as fertilizer. Because they were rich in oil, discarded sturgeon were stacked on shore like cordwood and burned to fuel steamboats.”
Then there was the demand for the sturgeon’s eggs. Most readers will be familiar with caviar, a delicacy of sturgeon eggs we tend to associate with Russia. But there was an impact on sturgeon here too.
“Through the 1800’s the desire for caviar (sturgeon eggs), isinglass (gelatin extracted from the swim bladder and used as a clarifying agent and glue) and smoked sturgeon meat in Europe and elsewhere in North America increased and more southern sturgeon stocks were fished out,” detailed the SRSMB website.
“As the value of sturgeon began to rise a commercial lake sturgeon fishery was established on the Saskatchewan River in 1898.
“The commercial fisheries for sturgeon grew rapidly in North America, and by the mid 1900’s most North American lake sturgeon populations had become depleted as over-harvesting to meet the demand for caviar in Europe drastically reduced the numbers of sturgeon, particularly reproducing females.
“Harvests from the Saskatchewan River were high (up to 56,000 kg/year) for the first three decades, then plummeted to less than 1000kg/year by 1930.
“Through the following decades the Saskatchewan River sturgeon fishery was closed several times due to low harvests. It has now been closed since 1995 in Manitoba and 1996 in Saskatchewan.”
But ultimately it is likely a case of how we impact natural waterways than the amount of fish harvested which have had the greatest impact on sturgeon which have less ability to recover a population because of the slow reproductive capacity of the lake sturgeon.
The SRSMB delved into that impact on their website;
In the past little consideration was given to the effects of developments on fish and their habitat. Fortunately this is changing and efforts are being made to minimize impacts of new and existing development, the site noted.
Municipal and Industrial Water Use
• Municipal and Industrial water use can impact sturgeon by changing the amount of water available, the water temperature and water quality.
Irrigation and Agriculture
• Withdrawing irrigation water from creeks and rivers can reduce and degrade fish habitat. Agricultural practices can also degrade riverbanks and cause erosion. Erosion increases the amount of sediment in the water and can affect fish survival.
The next step of course in doing what we can to help at least stabilize the lake sturgeon population in our province, if not spur a recovery.
The SRSMB is undertaking a recovery program consisting of several components including population monitoring, population enhancement, habitat assessment, habitat use studies, and public education.
In terms of monitoring lake sturgeon; “estimates of the number of medium to large (over 18.2 kg/18 pounds) sturgeon present in the SRSMB area, calculated annually over the past decade, have averaged around 1,000 fish. The Board suggests sturgeon abundance may be remaining steady, or may be declining slightly. But certainly, it has not been increasing from year to year.
“Stocking fingerlings is known to “bring back” populations that have almost disappeared. For over a decade the SRSMB has worked to develop a sturgeon stocking program to increase the population downstream of E.B. Campbell Dam on the Saskatchewan River.
With some better management practices, and care of our waterways the lake sturgeon may one day see its numbers climb. It is to be hoped as they are truly our most unique fish, ancient, ugly and wonderful.
