From the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
The Hudson River Estuary logo depicts an Atlantic sturgeon, the Hudson’s largest fish. It highlights the estuary’s critical role as habitat for valuable fish and wildlife and the need to be vigilant in protecting this natural heritage.
Capable of reaching huge size, armored with bony plates, and possessing a lineage extending back to the age of dinosaurs, sturgeons are almost as fascinating as those extinct reptiles. The sea-going Atlantic sturgeon may grow to a weight of 800 pounds and a length of fourteen feet. Sturgeon eggs (a prime source of caviar) and meat (tasty when smoked) make these fish commercially valuable. Unfortunately, overfishing is among the factors that have reduced sturgeon populations. Fishing for sturgeon is now prohibited in all Atlantic Coast states.
Young Atlantic sturgeon have been especially scarce in the Hudson in recent years. Among spawning adult sturgeon, there is a very low ratio of females to males. It could take nearly 50 years for this fish’s population to rebound, as sturgeon mature slowly. This species leaves the estuary between its second and sixth years of life. Female Atlantic sturgeons do not return to the Hudson to spawn until they are 18 years old, and do not reproduce every year after that.
Learn more here…
Visit the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
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