Endangered Sturgeon Need Help Making Babies - The Tyee

Listen to this article 10 min Kara Geary is a matchmaker for fish. ANNOUNCEMENTS, EVENTS & MORE FROM TYEE AND SELECT PARTNERS Take a Trip with Us: VIFF’s Documentary Series Spans the Globe ‘Insights’ takes audiences far and wide with stories of struggle, triumph and renewal. It’s not a particularly romantic job — not unless you find syringes of sturgeon semen, fishy fundal massages and bowls of sticky eggs romantic. But for the roughly 550 adult white sturgeon left in the Nechako River, her job is vital. Since the ’90s, people have known that white sturgeon in the Nechako were in trouble. A multi-year study of the species found that the population was aging, and very few babies were making it to adulthood. “The next five to 20 years represent the most critical period in recovery of Nechako sturgeon,” a 2004 recovery strategy for the species found. The species could become functionally extinct by 2044 if nothing was done, the strategy said. Fast forward a quarter of a century. Nechako white sturgeon were listed as endangered in the Species at Risk Act in 2006, and the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC established a test hatchery the same year. Now, thankfully, it appears the end is not quite nigh for the sturgeon. The Tyee is supported by readers like you Join us and grow independent media in Canada The Nechako White Sturgeon Conservation Centre in Vanderhoof, opened in 2014, is responsible for breeding new generations of Nechako River white sturgeon, as well as helping researchers learn more about the endangered species. The Nechako River is home to a genetically distinct population of white sturgeon, but the sturgeon’s life cycles make it challenging for researchers to understand how the sturgeon interact with the changing river. Photo for The Tyee by Grace Kennedy. “Sturgeon are a really challenging species to study,” explains Geary, whose official title is research technician and outreach coordinator. “A lot of the things of interest can take years, even decades, to really understand. And honestly, every time you answer one scientific question, three more questions we didn’t even know we had are uncovered.” One of the big questions plaguing experts for years: why are there so few baby sturgeon? In the beginning, there were fish White sturgeons first entered the fossil record 4.5 million years ago, making them contemporaries of our first human ancestors. While our ancestors looked more like chimpanzees than modern people, white…