Saving Seafood

Newly discovered ‘thunder’ of Atlantic sturgeon inspires awe

May 27, 2026 — When a team of researchers recorded a low thundering underneath the surface of the Hudson River, they thought they were hearing the muffled rumble of trains.

A closer look, and listen, led to a much more interesting discovery: the thunder came from Atlantic sturgeon – an iconic and endangered species – spawning in the depths of the river.

“It’s almost that you feel it more than you hear it,” said Maija Niemistö, science educator with the New York State Water Resources Institute (NYSWRI), a joint research center with Cornell and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC). “You can hear these chirps and squirts and bubbles underwater, but this is a different experience entirely. These are ancient fish, and the thunder – it’s almost like you’re brought back in time, because they’ve been making this sound, communicating with each other, for millions of years. It’s awe-inspiring.”

In a collaboration between the NYSWRI, NYSDEC, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics, Cornell’s Department of Natural Resources and the Environment (DNRE), and others, the team has confirmed the thunder of the Atlantic sturgeon for the first time, publishing the study in Endangered Species Research in 2025. That study was conducted in a known sturgeon spawning ground; this spring, the team placed additional underwater recorders in areas of suspected spawning, some of which are not protected.

Read the full article at the Cornell Chronicle

NORTH CAROLINA: Commercial gill net fishing to resume in several North Carolina waters next week

May 20, 2026 — Commercial gill net fishing is set to resume in several North Carolina waters next week.

The Division of Marine Fisheries announced that starting Monday, parts of eastern Pamlico Sound, Core Sound, and waters down to the South Carolina line will reopen. These areas operate under a federal permit designed to limit interactions with protected sea turtles and sturgeon.

Read the full article at Public Radio East

ASMFC Begins Preparations for Atlantic Sturgeon Benchmark Stock Assessment

April 23, 2026 — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has initiated a benchmark stock assessment for Atlantic sturgeon to be completed in the fall of 2028. The goals of the assessment are to evaluate the health of stocks along the Atlantic coast and inform management of this species. The Commission’s stock assessment process and meetings are open to the public, with the exception of discussions of confidential data.

 The Commission welcomes the submission of data sources that will contribute to the goals of the assessment. This includes, but is not limited to, data on abundance trends (e.g., surveys), tagging data, biological samples (sex, maturity, age, weight, length), life history information (growth, fecundity, natural mortality, sex ratio, spawning history), stock structure, mortality (predator-prey interactions, anthropogenic sources such as vessel strikes and bycatch). For data sets to be considered, the data must be sent in the required format, with accompanying description of methods, to the Commission by July 1, 2026. 
 
The Commission will hold three Data Webinars (July 23, 28 and 30, 2026) and one in-person session (August 10-12, 2026) to review all available data sources and identify datasets to be incorporated in the stock assessment. The Data Webinars and Workshop are open to the public. 
 
Please contact James Boyle at jboyle@asmfc.org or visit https://asmfc.org/events/ for more information on the webinars and workshop.

US lawmakers consider shielding sturgeon farmers from ESA restrictions

July 28, 2025 — Legislators in the U.S. Congress are considering legislation that would exempt American sturgeon farmers from Endangered Species Act (ESA) restrictions, although opponents say the legislation would open the door to Chinese and Russian imports.

The issue stems from a 2022 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) proposal to list four species of sturgeon – Russian, ship, Persian, and stellate – under the ESA. The rule was decried by the caviar industry at the time for not differentiating between sustainably farm-raised sturgeon and wild populations. With other species, such as Atlantic salmon, U.S. regulators have found ways to allow aquaculture operations to continue to trade fish legally even though it was listed as endangered in the Gulf of America, opponents said at the time.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Once in Dire Straits, Atlantic Sturgeon Are Staging a Comeback on the East Coast

May 29, 2025 — Matt Balazik surveyed Virginia’s James River for the carcass of a local legend. Growing up along the 340-mile tributary to the Chesapeake Bay, the scientist had heard plenty about Atlantic sturgeon, the large, ancient fish that was once abundant in this water. The species had always inspired fascination, here and elsewhere, because of its prehistoric build. Instead of scales, five rows of bony plates run along the length of its torpedo-shaped body—like armor on a dinosaur, a fellow creature of the Cretaceous period. Spotting a sturgeon jump out of the water was thus like glimpsing a living fossil.

But after periods of rampant overfishing and pollution, the fish had nearly vanished from the James and, in its scarcity, gained a certain mythological status. For all his days out on the river, Balazik had never seen one.

So when somebody reported an eight-foot floater near Herring Creek one day in 2007, the then-Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) graduate student didn’t hesitate to hop in a boat and start scanning the river’s surface for the fish that had long eluded him.

His sweeping search, however, proved fruitless. And as he turned around, he realized his vessel wouldn’t have enough fuel to make it back to VCU’s Rice Rivers Center. Chagrined, he waited by shore for his adviser to ferry over some gas.

Only then did Balazik finally lay eyes on the mammoth fish. One leapt from the water.

Read the full article at the Smithsonian Magazine

Environmentalists sue New York, New Jersey and Delaware over endangered sturgeon

October 25, 2024 — New York, New Jersey and Delaware were accused in federal lawsuits Thursday of improperly allowing Atlantic sturgeon to be killed by commercial fishing operations even as the prehistoric fish is on the brink of disappearing.

The three parallel lawsuits filed by the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and Hudson Riverkeeper accuse the states of violating the Endangered Species Act by not obtaining necessary permits that allow commercial fisheries to catch and kill Atlantic sturgeon while they fish for other species such as striped bass and summer flounder. The environmentalists say the once thriving fish’s recovery is threatened because they are unintentionally caught in commercial nets as “bycatch.”

Atlantic Sturgeon in the Delaware River and Hudson River were listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 2012.

“The Atlantic sturgeon of our two rivers are at risk from being wiped from the face of this earth within our lifetime,” Delaware Riverkeeper Maya van Rossum said during an online news conference.

Read the full article at The Associated Press

NJ is facing a potential lawsuit over alleged failure to protect endangered fish

July 26, 2024 — The state of New Jersey is facing a lawsuit for allegedly failing to protect the endangered Atlantic sturgeon, according to the Delaware and Hudson Riverkeeper Network.

New Jersey, as well as New York and Delaware, are being accused of failing to obtain incidental take permits when operating within the habitat of the Atlantic sturgeon species, according to the lawsuit, that has yet to be officially filed. These permits will ensure commercial fisheries operate within Endangered Species Act and federal law, said Maya van Rossum, the leader of the Delaware River Network.

The suit claims the three states have allowed fisheries to kill the Atlantic sturgeon through bycatch, the act of catching and discarding of species that fishers may catch, but do not want, cannot sell or are not allowed to keep.

The lawsuit claims the states are violating the Endangered Species Act by not requiring and approving the permits.

The Riverkeeper Networks say a permit would avoid the illegal taking of the fish and would establish the tracking of the number of the fish killed in an area.

Read the full article at NorthJersey.com

Riverkeepers take legal action to save sturgeons

July 22, 2024 — Individuals and group riverkeepers from New Jersey, New York, and Delaware announced that they plan to sue on behalf of the endangered Atlantic sturgeon. They claim that the taking and discarding of sturgeons due to bycatch has drastically caused the species’ decline.

Riverkeepers are privately funded non-governmental advocates who work to protect the public’s right to clean water. According to sources, the groups hope to prevent commercial fisheries from taking or discarding sturgeon as bycatch while out trawling the ocean for striped bass, flounder, and other fish. They claim that bycatch has impeded the recovery of the species specifically in the Hudson River.

The Hudson currently supports the largest population of Atlantic sturgeon along the Atlantic coast, estimated to be between 1000 and 1500 fish. In 2012, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared five distinct population segments of the Atlantic sturgeon endangered and protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Environmentalists threaten to sue NJ, NY and Delaware over Atlantic sturgeon bycatch

July 12, 2024 — Atlantic sturgeon have been around for 70 million years — predating the dinosaurs. These monumental fish with shark-like fins even survived the Chicxulub asteroid, which caused the great extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous Period.

But the species that once thrived in the Philadelphia region’s waterways has become endangered, threatened by habitat loss, dams, poor water quality and vessel strikes. In the Delaware River, only about 250 estimated sturgeon remain, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Sturgeon are also caught in fishing nets and injured by boats during the commercial fishing of other types of fish such as striped bass and summer flounder.

Read the full article at the NJ Spotlight News

Atlantic Sturgeon and Climate Change: Warming Water Impacts Spawning and Development

October 28, 2023 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Atlantic sturgeon inhabit rivers and coastal waters from Canada to Florida and can live for 30-60 years. The sturgeon family is the most primitive of all bony fish, with ancestors dating back to the Cretaceous period more than 120 million years ago. Atlantic sturgeon are particularly sensitive to high water temperatures, especially their eggs and juveniles. This sensitivity makes them vulnerable to warming water temperatures associated with climate change.

Beginning in the late 1800s, commercial fisheries began to harvest valuable caviar from Atlantic sturgeon. By the early 1900s, their populations had declined drastically. Recovering Atlantic sturgeon is challenged by their long generational cycles and late age of sexual maturity for reproduction. In response to historic and current challenges, NOAA Fisheries listed four distinct population segments of Atlantic sturgeon as endangered and one as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 2012.

In 2023, NOAA Fisheries celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act. Since it was enacted, no listed marine or anadromous species have gone extinct. However, as climate change intensifies, the recovery of listed species, like the Atlantic sturgeon and its relatives, may become more challenging. Through climate-focused research and management, NOAA Fisheries aims to mitigate the potential impacts of climate change on listed species to foster their continued recovery.

Impacts of Warming Water Temperatures

Atlantic sturgeon migrate from freshwater rivers and estuaries to the ocean as sub-adults, then return to spawn in the same rivers where they were born. Spring spawning adults move inland when temperatures warm and days are longer. Fall spawning adults move upriver in the heat of the summer to spawn as water temperatures cool in the fall. Due to climate change, the rivers and bays of the U.S. East Coast are warming earlier in the spring, and experiencing hotter peaks during the summer.

Juvenile Atlantic sturgeon prefer water temperatures between 65–72°F to develop, and they will be healthiest during years with that temperature range. Inland waters that warm faster and stay warm for longer due to climate change may limit successful spawning and threaten the survival of eggs and juveniles.