(CN) — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Monday that it will not protect lake sturgeon under the Endangered Species Act due to the species’ high resiliency and the success of fish stocking programs with other conservation efforts.
“After assessing the best available information, we concluded that the lake sturgeon is not in danger of extinction or likely to become in danger of extinction within the foreseeable future throughout all of its range or in any significant portion of its range,” the service wrote in its 12-month finding for the Federal Register.
The government’s decision arrives six years after the Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the service to list all U.S. lake sturgeon — or even distinct populations, if necessary — as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. The center then sued the service in 2020 after the agency failed to follow up on its 2019 finding that conservation protections might be warranted, leading a federal judge to demand a 12-month finding for lake sturgeon by 2024.
On Monday, however, the service shot down the center’s hopes for protecting the ancient fish species that has lost over 99% of its historical numbers due to overfishing, dam construction, logging and climate change.
“This decision is bad for lake sturgeon and anglers alike because overall the species has suffered drastic declines,” said Jeff Miller, senior conservation advocate for the center, in a statement. “While some populations are well managed, adult fish numbers are at a fraction of their historical levels despite decades of restoration efforts.”
In the late 1800s, there were an estimated 15 million lake sturgeon in the Great Lakes alone. This number is a mere fraction of the 200-million-year-old species’ historical range, which included several rivers within the eastern and central regions of North America.
But while the service acknowledges how lake sturgeon numbers have been significantly reduced by dam construction, it contends that the ancient fish have maintained genetic diversity and are highly adaptive to warming climates and changing environments.
“While we expect dams and barriers to continue to have a significant negative effect on the lake sturgeon, we expect the stocking programs occurring in six of eight representation units in the United States and three of four designatable units in Canada to continue until management objectives are met,” the agency wrote.
The service noted that — while limited to suitable, accessible habitats — lake sturgeon have a relatively wide thermal tolerance, mobility and flexible spawning phenology that gives them a high degree of adaptability to climate change. It also disagreed with the center’s suggestion that there are nine potential distinct population segments of lake sturgeon, citing a lack of separation from other lake sturgeon populations.
“The Fish and Wildlife Service decided not to protect distinct regional populations despite scientific findings that each watershed may contain genetically unique fish,” Miller said. “Endangered Species Act protection would bring a comprehensive recovery plan and ongoing funding to restore these iconic fish across their former range.”
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