Trail, B.C., students need no urgin’ to help transplant baby sturgeon

TRAIL, B.C. – There was a lot of wriggling going on along the banks of the Columbia River through Trail, B.C., this week — and that was just the sturgeon.

The kids were pretty excited, too.

More than 700 Trail-area students helped release some of the 4,000 hatchery-raised juvenile sturgeon into the river near Beaver Creek as part of the annual Upper Columbia White Sturgeon Recovery Initiative (UCWSRI).

Although some of the children were a little squeamish about handling the wriggling live fish, others were thrilled with the opportunity.

“The first one was awesome,” said seven-year-old, Grade 2 student, Meghan Hancock. “Touching one… wow!”

The Recovery Initiative has been studying the dwindling numbers of wild sturgeon in the Columbia since 2000 and has been releasing hatchery-raised fish into the waterway since 2002.

“The main reason we have to do this release is because of what is referred to as a failure to recruit by the sturgeon,” said UCWRSI official, Gerry Nellestijn.

“We know they’re breeding, we know the eggs are hatching, but they’re not making it to the juvenile stage. Without the conservative aquaculture program there would be no survival of sturgeon in the Columbia River.”

According to Nellestijn the lack of wild juvenile sturgeon means that, at present, all the naturally occurring sturgeon in the Upper Columbia are at least 50 years-old.

He says adding the hatchery fish ensures a variable age range of the stock.

Each fish is implanted with a tag so they can be tracked electronically as they swim by monitoring stations.

“Sturgeon can live 100 years so this is definitely a time-will-tell program,” said Nellestijn. “Males don’t mature until they’re 15 years-old and females at 18 to 20 years. What we have embarked on is an aquaculture program that will take two decades to determine if we can provide successful breeders into the system.”

Because the sturgeon are so long-lived Nellestijn says that the program requires a long term commitment from the public.

“With these tags these kids will be able to track these fish for the rest of their lives,” said Nellestijn. “That’s one of the reasons we think it’s so important to involve the kids in this program. They’re almost junior biologists, we need them as ambassadors.” (Trail Times)