Twin Ports Freshwater Folk: Take-Out or Home-Cooking? Tracking Lake Sturgeon Diet and Movement in the St. Louis River Estuary

Registration:

Please register in advance to attend this free event.

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Description:

The September 2022 Twin Ports Freshwater Folk event will be held in-person at Chambers Grove Park in Duluth, Minnesota. Lunch will be provided. Due to venue limitations, we will not have a virtual attendance option.

Why Chamber’s Grove? Lake Sturgeon were extirpated from the St. Louis River in the early 1900s due to overfishing, pollution, and habitat loss. To help facilitate Lake Sturgeon population recovery, increased protections such as commercial harvest closures, stocking, and fish sanctuaries were established; one of these sanctuaries is Chambers Grove.

Beginning in 2015 habitat restoration efforts such as the removal of the hardened shoreline, and the creation of stone jetties to recreate naturally occurring riffles – that Lake Sturgeon use for spawning grounds – were placed to further enhance Lake Sturgeon recovery in the St. Louis River estuary.

There is ongoing concern about the recovery of Lake Sturgeon in light of large-scale restoration work conducted through the Environmental Protection Agency's Area of Concern program, but there is no reliable information in regard to diet and movements of the established population to indicate the amount and type of habitat usage of restored habitat. A study to characterize diet contribution and movement habits of Lake Sturgeon in the St. Louis River estuary is in progress. Using two complementary tracking methods, the goal is to aid resource managers in determining how restoration of the St. Louis River will affect the population and contribute to Lake Sturgeon recovery.