Great Lakes Fishery Commission

Updated 2026-08-20 20:48:30

Lake Erie-2021-2025 -> 3.0 Rehabilitation Species -> Lake Sturgeon Rehabilitation

Maintain or increase adult lake sturgeon abundance in existing spawning sites and establish an adult spawning stock in at least one new spawning location

Sustainable lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) spawning populations exist in the St. Clair-Detroit River System (SCDRS) and in eastern Lake Erie (Buffalo Harbor and the upper Niagara River). Estimates of adult lake sturgeon exceed 20,000 fish in the upper St. Clair River and southern Lake Huron population and exceed 6,000 fish in both the lower St. Clair and Detroit River populations (Briggs et al. 2020). These population levels meet or exceed management targets (Sara Thomas, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, personal communication). In eastern Lake Erie, estimates from data collected from 2013-2018 indicated a population of 889 adults, exceeding the management target of 750 adults established by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (Withers et al. 2019; Holst and Zollweg-Horan 2018).

Rehabilitation efforts continue in several Lake Erie tributaries that historically supported lake sturgeon spawning. Stocking efforts in the Maumee River (OH) began in 2018 and annual stocking of 3,000 juveniles continues with the goal of establishing a spawning population of 1,500 adults (Collier et al. 2018). Since stocking began in the Maumee River, reports of incidental catches of lake sturgeon in Ohio waters of Lake Erie have increased (B. Schmidt, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, personal communication). Similar efforts expanded in 2025 to include the Cuyahoga (1,500 juveniles annually) and Sandusky (750 juveniles annually) rivers in Ohio (Weimer 2025) and Cattaraugus Creek in New York (1,000 juveniles). Stocking efforts in each tributary are planned for up to 25 years to establish self-sustaining spawning populations in each system.