C L E A R W A T E R
avigator
N
N o v e m b e r / D E C E m b e r 2 0 0 4
DON’T
M
ISS
OUR
HOLIDAY
CATALOG
IN
SIDE
ON
PAGES 4 & 5
Now, after all that time – all those glaciers, meteors and
volcanoes – we’ve almost fished the sturgeon out of
existence in a few short decades. Concerned about the
crashing population of Atlantic Sturgeon (see graph), in 1996
Governor Pataki took the recommendations of DEC staff in
the Fisheries Unit and the Estuary Management Program,
declaring a moratorium on fishing for the species on the
Hudson, and then began urging New Jersey to do the same.
Other states soon followed, and by 1998 there was, and
remains, a coastwide ban on taking Atlantic sturgeon thanks
to New York’s leadership.Without question, it is this action
that has saved the species, buying time for a restoration plan
to be developed.
After 1996, the Atlantic sturgeon seemed to bounce
back, but unfortunately, by 2000 numbers were at
he Hudson’s shortnose sturgeon (Acipenser
brevirostrum) is a federally-listed endangered species,
and you’d think that it would be the most compelling
story of the river’s most charismatic fish family. But you’d be
wrong. When I gave DEC scientists Kathy Hattala and Gregg
Kenney a chance to talk sturgeon for the Navigator, the story
was all about Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrhynchus
oxyrhynchus – and no, it’s not a typo).
The largest of all the Hudson’s fishes, the Atlantic
sturgeon can grow to more than twelve feet in length, and
live more than 100 years. They have a cartilaginous skeleton
and are covered with bony plates called scutes. They feed
from the bottom on worms, mollusks and crustaceans. Their
mouths are part catfish, with sensory barbels dangling
beneath their chins, and part sucker, with protruding
toothless round lips on the bottoms of their snouts. They’ve
been around since the Jurassic era, and have survived as a
family for more than 120 million years.
- Andy Mele
Executive Director
S O M E R E C O V E R Y , B U T N U M B E R S R E M A I N L O W
Linda Richards00 01 02
2
85