Lake Sturgeon/Fish of the Great Lakes by Wisconsin Sea Grant

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Alewife

Atlantic Salmon

Bloater

Brook Trout

Brown Trout

Burbot

Carp

Chinook Salmon

Coho Salmon

Freshwater Drum

Lake Herring

Lake Sturgeon

Lake Trout

Lake Whitefish

Longnose Sucker

Muskellunge

Northern Pike

Pink Salmon

Rainbow Smelt

Rainbow Trout

Round Goby

Round Whitefish

Ruffe

Sea Lamprey

Smallmouth Bass

Walleye

White Perch

White Sucker

Yellow Perch

Lake Sturgeon
Acipenser fulvescens

Length:3 to 5 feet

Weight:10 to 80 pounds

Coloring:olive-brown to grey on back and sides, with white belly

Common Names:freshwater sturgeon, rock sturgeon,bony sturgeon, smoothback

Found in Lakes:Michigan, Huron, Ontario, Erie and Superior

These "living fossils" of fish evolution once ranged widely throughout the Mississippi River, the Great Lakes and the Hudson River. Occasionally, the lake sturgeon's dark form can be discerned in reedy shallows or near river mouths. The glimpse is as rare as it is startling.

In the last century, this large, bony-plated animal, browsing along the bottom, was often regarded as a nuisance because it became entangled in and ripped commercial fishing nets. Only later did the sturgeon become prized for its meat, eggs (caviar) and oil. A gelatin from the inner lining of its air bladder was used to make isinglass--a substance used as a clarifying agent in jellies, glues and in the isinglass windows of carriages and early cars.

Unfortunately, the sturgeon was exceptionally vulnerable to overfishing, largely because of its slow reproductive cycle. The female requires more than 20 years to mature, and then it spawns only every four to six years during its 50-year lifespan.

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copyright University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute
Brook Trout illustration copyright 1998 Gina Mikel
Top lake sturgeon photograph (c) Shedd Aquarium (e-mail)
Last updated 05 February 2002 by Seaman