Chesapeake Atlantic Sturgeon: Endangered 1/31/12

[SteveL]

Atlantic Sturgeon range very far and wide across the Eastern seaboard including rivers, estuaries, and sometimes in the ocean. They are caught as bycatch in a wide range of commercial fisheries including trawls, gillnets, and poundnets. Recs also catch them occasionally and so do fisheries researchers when they use commercial gear.

In general the rate of Atl sturgeon bycatch is low in many fisheries--a few are caught over a wide area in a number of fisheries. The listing under ESA will add this species to the other ESA listed marine species in the mid-Atlantic region that interact with rec and comm fishing gear including shortnose sturgeon, Atl salmon (very low abundance), several species of sea turtles and some marine mammals such as North Atlantic right whale.

Its very safe to say that modern day poaching is not one of the factors that led to the Atl sturgeon listing under ESA.

The NOAA site below has more info.

http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/stories/201..._sturgeon.html

[billx8]

There are no large gillnets inshore in Florida and they actually have a (very) few fish left unlike around here. There are more sturgeon in Florida than in any other East coast state. Coincidence?