Sturgeon Tagging

[hookncook]

Geona, WI-

Nine Volunteers tag close to 1,100 sturgeon at the Genoa Fish Hatchery on April 2. The sturgeon are assigned for the Chippewa Indian Tribe in Northern Wisconsin for their tribal harvest and fishery.

“Since they have started this stocking program some years ago, the tribe has only claimed one sturgeon.” Explains Ann, a staff member of the U.S. Fish and Wild Life Service. There are many factors that contribute to the poor harvest of the sturgeon. Equipment to harvest sturgeon is very expensive and the poverty rate in Northern Wisconsin is very high; also it has been many years and generations since the tribe has been able to harvest sturgeon, many of the traditional ways of sturgeon harvest are forgotten; lastly, the depth of the Chippewa lakes are deeper than the more common sturgeon harvesting location of Lake Winnebago. The Chippewa Nation is allowed to harvest 100 sturgeon each year.

Tagging a sturgeon is relatively easy, the sturgeon are injected with an electronic tag- very similar to what a pet identifier is, then the tag is activated with a magnetic wand that assigns the tag with a number, then the fish is released back into the fish tank. During the tagging process, sturgeon are randomly selected to be measured. The tag number is logged on a data sheet for future reference.

When the sturgeon are caught in the future, the agent will have a very similar wand that will detect the tag number and the agent will know the location and batch the sturgeon came from and the growth of the sturgeon over time.

[Stick500]

thanks for the info

however the article kinda contradicts itself

on the one hand it says the tribe has a very hard time catching them, yet 9 volunteers were able to tag 1100?

wonder what expensive equip. were they using?

[hookncook]

Thank you for your comment.

To clarify, these sturgeon are stock sturgeon from the US Fish and Wildlife at Genoa. They were tagging them as juvenile at the facility, THEN releasing them for the tribe to fish for in the wild, where the fish become difficult to catch.

[hookncook]

Here's some pictures

The tag

Tag goes into the needle for injection

Fish getting injected

[hookncook]

It was really cool to see local youth getting involved with this project.

[OnAFly]

Yeah it is. I would have loved to do that kind of stuff when I was a kid.

[Stick500]

just curious, what does sturgeon taste like?

I'm guessing it's a very firm white meat?

would love to try some sometime

[flyfisher03]

My aunt was in Russia and she said sturgeon was pretty good but also had a lot of cartilage in it.

[Grum]

just curious, what does sturgeon taste like?

I'm guessing it's a very firm white meat?

would love to try some sometime

You can buy little cans of smoked sturgeon in most supermarkets. Look for it next to the canned tuna and crab. It's pretty tasty but spendy. I would love to try some fresh caught some day. I bet it is much more firm and tastier. The canned stuff is kinda like smoked whitefish but softer.