First Confirmed Female Sturgeon in Spawning Condition in James River Captured (and Released)
By Janet Krenn
It sounds like the set-up to a punch line—a fisherman, a researcher, and a fishery manager are in a boat—but what they pull up is no joke. The 6ft, 200lb female Atlantic sturgeon the group captured is the first confirmed female in spawning condition found in the James River.
The find could help researchers identify the spawning location of the genetically distinct sturgeon population in the James River. Documenting details of this population has become more important recently since National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is considering adding Atlantic sturgeon in the Chesapeake Bay to the endangered species list.
An endangered species listing would affect those fishing in the James River, where sturgeon is a bycatch species in the striped bass fishery. Despite reports that the sturgeon population in the Bay is dwindling, some fishermen believe that the population in the James is increasing. George Trice is one of these fishermen.
Trice, who has been a fisherman for more than 22 years, is concerned about what would happen to his fishery if sturgeon make it to the endangered species list. For the last seven years, with help from Virginia Fishery Resource Grant Program and Virginia Sea Grant, Trice has been testing new nets that could reduce sturgeon bycatch. In addition to testing new nets, he and his partners have been collecting ongoing data about sturgeon abundance in the James. This data provide an important baseline for fishery managers, should sturgeon get listed. According to Trice, collecting data is key, especially when it comes to making claims about fish populations.
“If you don’t document it, it’s just word of mouth, or hearsay,” Trice says. Documenting sturgeon abundance involves putting the same net in the water for the same amount of time multiple times during multiple years and counting the sturgeon caught in each haul. Trice’s sturgeon catches have increased since 2005, when the group started sampling, but it will take a few more years of data before the increase can be considered real (that is confirmed statistically).
This kind of data is only one piece of the pie, says the advisor and observer in Trice’s research, Albert Spells, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Virginia Fisheries Coordinator. Spells has been partnering with many groups to determine the James River sturgeon “functional population size,” which is the number of spawning adults. Getting to the point of estimating a functional population size requires a variety of data—everything from abundance samples that Trice helps generate to genetic analysis that identifies sturgeon from the James.
“This information will help us learn where and what constitutes critical in-river habitat,” Spells said in an email.
Spells and a team of Virginia Commonwealth University researchers hope that the female captured earlier this month will help in identifying where some of that critical spawning habitat is in the James. The fish was confirmed in spawning condition by a VCU student, while performing a surgical procedure to embed a tag into sturgeon so that it could be tracked.
With a better understanding of how James River sturgeon fit into overall Atlantic sturgeon population, Spells expects that management in the region would be more effective, regardless of whether sturgeon get an endangered species listing.
