Lake Sturgeon Restoration through Effective Partnerships

Genoa National Fish Hatchery has had a long standing history of partnerships for lake sturgeon restoration.  The hatchery was initially contacted in the late 90’s to raise Rainy River lake sturgeon for the White Earth Tribe, working towards repopulating the Red River Basin in Minnesota.  This early program has now grown into partnerships with seven states and four tribes.  The program is constantly evolving as new techniques are developed and Genoa NFH has worked with USGS on several studies resulting in better fish culture.  Beginning in 2012, staff from the hatchery began working with NY DEC and FWS staff from Region 5 to look at ways to reverse the reproductive failures of lake sturgeon egg collections from the St. Lawrence River seen in recent years, the last viable egg collection was in 2006.   A formal partnership has now been established with the goal of increasing genetic contributions to that population, leading towards the removal of the lake sturgeon from the state endangered species listing.