Reporting Atlantic Sturgeon in NJ Waters

NJDEP Fish & Wildlife has received recent reports of Atlantic sturgeon sightings in our waterways. As a reminder, Atlantic sturgeon are a federally protected species under the Endangered Species Act, and it is illegal to possess, harm, or harass them in any way, whether the fish is alive or dead.

• DO NOT attempt to handle, remove, or interact with sturgeon.

• If you accidentally catch a sturgeon, release it immediately, unharmed.

• If you see a sturgeon (alive, stranded, or deceased), report the sighting immediately to
NJDEP Fish & Wildlife at 609-748-2020, or file a report on the NJ Marine Protected Species Reporter application and email NOAA Fisheries at noaa.sturg911@noaa.gov

If possible, take photos from a safe distance and note the exact location (GPS coordinates if available), date, and time of the sighting.

Your cooperation is critical to the protection and recovery of this ancient and endangered species. 

Thank you for doing your part to protect New Jersey’s wildlife and waterways!

Environmental Groups Sue New Jersey Over Sturgeon Deaths

The environmental groups Riverkeeper and the Delaware Riverkeeper Network filed separate lawsuits against New York, New Jersey and Delaware over what the organizations allege are the states’ violations of the Endangered Species Act.Their concerns are about the Atlantic sturgeon, which spends much of its life in the Atlantic Ocean but travels up rivers on the eastern seaboard to spawn.

Sturgeons can live more than 60 years and reach massive sizes. In 2024, a sturgeon was caught in the Hudson River near Hyde Park that weighed 220 pounds and measured more than 6 feet. The fish was caught and released as part of the state Hudson River Estuary’s sturgeon monitoring program.

Sturgeon    NOAA photo

Part of this concern is about what is known as "bycatch," The lawsuit states that: “State-authorized commercial fisheries are allowed to use state-licensed fishing equipment in waters where Atlantic sturgeon are known to live, causing bycatch of Atlantic sturgeon. Studies show that Atlantic sturgeon is known bycatch in several commercial fisheries within New York state’s sovereign waters, including the striped bass, summer flounder, longfin inshore squid, bluefish, scup, tautog, winter flounder, weakfish, winter skate, silver hake, and little skate fisheries.” Nine of these 11 species are caught with either trawls or gill nets, which are known to accidentally catch sturgeon.

Anglers often hrow bycatch back into the water, but sturgeon caught this way are often unable to reproduce and can die, according to the lawsuit.

Extrapolating harvest figures from the late 1800s show about 180,000 spawning female sturgeon in the Delaware River at the time, according to Delaware Riverkeeper Network Restoration Director Erik Silldorff. Today, there are fewer than 250 adults of both sexes. Only 466 adult sturgeon remain in the Hudson River, according to Riverkeeper President Tracy Brown.

EPA Proposal May Help Save the Sturgeon

From a post by Tony Hagen (editor@newjersey.sierraclub.org) 

With sturgeon on the brink of extinction in the Delaware River, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has introduced a draft rule (graphic above) that would ease one of the threats to this highly sensitive—some might say “canary”—fish. The EPA plans to set limits on how low oxygen levels can drop in the river.

Survival rates of Atlantic sturgeon and shortnose sturgeon tend to drop as dissolved oxygen levels decline. The EPA believes it can improve conditions with tighter controls on discharges of sewage and industrial waste. 

Anthropogenic activity (human waste), combined with warmer temperatures, causes algae to proliferate, and when algae die, their decomposition consumes oxygen in the river. This causes hypoxia, or oxygen-starved environments, which are especially harmful to sturgeon. 

Heavy sewage discharge from the Philadelphia area has been a chief cause of this problem. Also, nutrients flowing into the Delaware River from farming, golf courses, and lawn maintenance in neighborhoods along the Delaware River also contribute to the growth of algae and hypoxia. 

read more at sierraclub.org/new-jersey/blog/2024/03/epa-proposal-may-help-save-sturgeon

Sturgeon in the Delaware River

Photos: Delaware State University

An episode of the podcast State of Change from Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey focuses on the sturgeon population that existed in the Delaware River in the 1890s and today.

It was their eggs (roe) and a booming market for it as caviar in the 19th century that grew an industry on the river. Though the industry and the sturgeon population collapsed, there are approximately 300 breeding adult Atlantic sturgeon that return to the area today.

Like our horseshoe crabs, sturgeon are "living fossils" that have survived from the days of the dinosaurs through threats to their existence and into the 21st century.

In 2022, New Jersey’s list of endangered and threatened species added the Atlantic sturgeon. It is the second fish, along with the shortnose sturgeon, on that list. 

Listen to the State of Change podcast episode 

The Atlantic sturgeon has existed for hundreds of millions of years but there is a question about whether it will survive in the coming decades. Overharvesting, habitat loss, pollution, and climate change are all working against it. Will this ancient fish survive in the era of humans?

More on sturgeon in NJ from this blog

A Pallid Sturgeon Moon

Pallid sturgeon juvenile yearling at 5 months. USFWS Image

The August Full Moon is sometimes called the Sturgeon Moon, a name given by fishing tribes for whom this large fish of the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water was most readily caught during this month.

All five U.S. Atlantic sturgeon distinct population segments are listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

These populations are threatened by entanglement in fishing gear, habitat degradation, and habitat impediments such as dams and other barriers and vessel strikes.

The juvenile pallid sturgeon yearling (Scaphirhynchus albus) shown above is a bottom-dwelling, slow-growing fish that feed primarily on small fish and immature aquatic insects. This species of sturgeon is seldom seen and is one of the least understood fish in the Missouri and Mississippi River drainages. It is an ancient species that has existed since the days of the dinosaurs.

Pallid sturgeon - Photo by South Dakota Game Fish and Parks; Sam Stukel

In New Jersey, we are more familiar with Atlantic Sturgeon and shortnose sturgeon. They are an anadromous fish species that are also multiple spawners. This species can inhabit marine, brackish fresh waters. As adults, the Atlantic sturgeon will migrate along the Atlantic coast. These fish will then begin to ascend the lower reaches of large rivers, such as the Delaware, in the spring to begin their spawning runs. Spawning normally occurs over bedrock, boulders and gravel bottoms. Adult Atlantic sturgeon will then return to the sea after spawning.

The pallid sturgeon's habitat is the Mississippi River downstream of its confluence with the Missouri River, and its range includes Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Tennessee

Like other sturgeon, the pallid sturgeon experienced a dramatic decline throughout its range since the mid to late 1960s. Nearly all of its habitat has been modified through river channelization, construction of impoundments, and related changes in water flow. These changes blocked the pallid sturgeon's movements, destroyed or altered its spawning areas, reduced its food sources or its ability to obtain food, and altered water temperatures and other environmental conditions necessary for the fish's survival.

The pallid sturgeon was listed as endangered in 1990 and recovery efforts include research to learn more about its life history and habitat requirements, artificial propagation to improve its numbers, habitat improvement and reducing mortality from commercial fishing.

In September 2010, threatened status for the Shovelnose Sturgeon and pallid sturgeon listed to protect pallid sturgeon by treating shovelnose sturgeon as a threatened species where their ranges overlap.