ONTONAGON COUNTY, Mich. – A hikers’ report of spotting three lake sturgeon stranded in a river channel in the Upper Peninsula led the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to rescue nearly 30 lake sturgeon.
Hikers on the North Country Trail crossed the West Branch Ontonagon River downstream of the Victoria Dam on Aug. 23 and saw three lake sturgeon in pools in the channel. The hikers reported the sturgeon to the DNR’s Report All Poaching hotline, and the DNR forwarded the report to local fisheries staff.
According to the DNR, there is little to no flow in the part of the channel where the sturgeon were found around this time of year.
Victoria Dam, operated by the Upper Peninsula Power Company, is a hydroelectric dam generating power for the region. Under its Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license, flow is diverted from the river to generate hydroelectric power, then rejoins the West Branch Ontonagon River downstream, leaving much of the river channel between that point and the dam dry or partly dry for parts of the year.
DNR fisheries technicians responded and relocated two sturgeon to an isolated pool downstream, where the river reaches full flow, nearly a mile over land in rugged conditions.
DNR staff returned to the site to search more for the third sturgeon that was spotted there. They then found a large number of live sturgeon in a pool clouded with sediment. Staff safely moved ten more fish downstream, but they could not rescue all of them because of their location and the equipment they had on hand.
Staff returned for a third mission and found another 15 sturgeon, which they moved to safety. The DNR confirmed none were led into the dewatered stream channel.
Sturgeon have been stocked in the Ontonagon River since 1998. Since sturgeon are long-lived and still recovering in this system, the DNR said the loss of 27 fish could have been detrimental to that population.
Lake sturgeon have been listed as a threatened species in Michigan since 1994.
The DNR said that if you see something unusual, like fish somewhere they shouldn’t be or an unknown fish species you haven’t encountered before, you should report it. You can report observations here or by contacting your local fisheries biologist.
If a threatened species appears to be in immediate danger, you can report it to the DNR’s Report All Paching hotline at 800-292-7800.
