This year Genoa National Fish Hatchery staff collected lake sturgeon eggs from the Wolf, Wisconsin, Rainy, St. Clair and Sturgeon Rivers. Throughout the summer hatchery biologists, pathways students and youth conservation corp. enrollees have their hands full feeding and caring for lake sturgeon. As the summer season comes to an end and fall begins, these fish are ready to be tagged before being released to their stocking locations. Some lake sturgeon are coded wire tagged and others receive PIT tags and/or acoustic tags. By tagging the lake sturgeon it allows resource managers to assess future population growth, survival, and movements. The Genoa National Fish Hatchery partnered with the Wisconsin DNR for the collection of the Wolf River and Wisconsin River along with National Fish Hatchery. Genoa also partnered with the Minnesota DNR, La Crosse Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office, Valley City National Fish Hatchery and Garrison Dam National Fish Hatchery to collect, raise, and release Rainy River lake sturgeon. Thank you to all of our volunteers that aided in the tagging process where over 28,000 lake sturgeon were coded wire tagged from the Wolf, Wisconsin and Rainy Rivers this year. Hatchery staff rely heavily on volunteers and partnerships to assist with individually tagging. Volunteers play a vital role in supporting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. When these fish are tagged, they are ready for transport to designated locations from Northern Minnesota to Southern Tennessee and west to South Dakota in support of continued restoration efforts.
For the St. Clair lake sturgeon the Genoa National Fish hatchery partnered with the Alpena Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office, Michigan DNR, and La Crosse Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office to collect, raise, tag, and release the St Clair lake sturgeon. Acoustic and PIT tags were used to track future growth, survival rates and movements in the Cuyahoga and Maumee Rivers. There was also lake sturgeon that only received PIT tags to be stocked in the Saginaw, Maumee, Flint, Cass, Shiawassee, and Tittabawassee Rivers for future growth and survival rates.

lake sturgeon upside down in a sponge

acoustic tag going into a fish