The state Department of Environmental Conservation on Wednesday stocked the Genesee River with 1,500 more yearling sturgeon, adding to a major environmental success story in the region.
The department does this every year or so with the goal of eventually having a self-sustaining population of the distinctive, ancient fish in the river and Lake Ontario.
"Through stocking, we've actually seen a lot of good returns, meaning a lot of these adults have actually come back to the the river," said Mike DiSarno, a fisheries biologist with the state DEC. "We've seen some spawning-size females and males coming back, so it is a really good sign these fish are doing pretty well."
Sturgeon are native to Lake Ontario and the Genesee River and can live in excess of 100 years. But by the early 1900s, they had been wiped out by a combination of habitat loss, pollution, and overfishing — their meat and caviar were very popular.
The effort leading up to Wednesday's release began in 2003, when the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the DEC teamed up to begin rebuilding the lake sturgeon population. Seneca Park Zoo also became involved.
That year and the one after, close to 2,000 sturgeon were released into the river. The release followed decades of coordinated efforts to improve the health of the river and an area of the lake known as the Rochester Embayment, which stretches from Parma to Webster.
"There's been a lot of water quality improvements, so theoretically, things have kind of changed for the better, and we're really hoping that it's a sign of things to come here," DiSarno said.
And scientists have seen positive signs. DiSarno said the DEC and its federal partners have seen signs of spawning activity. They've netted male and female fish that were spawning size, have found some "ripe" females that were ready to lay eggs, and spotted potential egg-laying on monitored sites, he added.
"It's a really good sign that these fish might actually be spawning, and there might be some natural recruitment that might be happening here," DiSarno said.
