GLADSTONE, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Researchers from the Hiawatha National Forest and the Northern Research Station are using modern technology to bring back lake sturgeon.
Logging and commercial fishing nearly wiped out lake sturgeon one hundred years ago.
Lake sturgeon can grow more than 8-feet-long, weigh up to 300 pounds and live more than 100 years. In the late 1800s, there were as many as 15 million lake sturgeon in the Great Lakes.
However, commercial anglers regarded them as a nuisance since lake sturgeon would get tangled in their nets and cause damage. They would kill the fish, which eventually lead to low population.
Now, Environmental DNA (eDNA) is hoping to change things. It is genetic material that is shed from organisms and then briefly persists in the environment – like pollen in the air from plants, or skin cells in the water from fish.
Researchers said they only need an environmental sample from the surrounding air, water, or soil to obtain it, so eDNA is ideal for finding hard-to-find animals like lake sturgeon.