DETROIT – How do you move a dinosaur fish across Metro Detroit, into classrooms and into a TV station? With a cooler, as it turns out.
Washago, a lake sturgeon raised through a Huron-Clinton Metroparks and Sturgeon for Tomorrow educational program, has been visiting Metro Detroit classrooms to teach students about conservation and Michigan’s threatened native species.
He visited nine different schools in May alone.
Washago came down to Detroit to be on Local 4 Live, along with Amy McMillian and Erin Parker from Huron-Clinton Metroparks.
You can watch the full interview in the video player above.
“The Metroparks has this huge program where we’re working really hard to connect kids to nature and their families to nature,” McMillian said. “Last year alone, we had 54,000 kids really go through the programs that our interpreters offer all throughout the region, in schools, in our parks, at our nature centers.”
What makes lake sturgeon a ‘dinosaur fish’?
Lake sturgeon are often called “dinosaur fish” and for good reason. Their ancestors swam Earth’s waters more than 150 million years ago, before the dinosaurs went extinct, and the species has changed very little since.
“They look a bit like a shark,” Parker said. “And it just attracts people. It’s an engaging fish.”
The fish can grow between 6 and 8 feet long and are the largest native freshwater fish in the Great Lakes.
They are also a long-lived species -- capable of living 80 to 100 years -- but they don’t begin breeding until they are 15 to 20 years old.
Washago, believed to be about a year old, was roughly a foot long at the time of recording.
A species under threat
Despite their impressive resilience, lake sturgeon are a threatened species, meaning they are at risk of becoming extinct in the foreseeable future. Overfishing, pollution, dams and habitat loss are among the biggest challenges facing the population.
Parker said the staff has grown deeply attached to Washago over the past year.
“The whole staff is really sad,” she said. “You grow super attached to the fish over the course of a year. Absolutely.”
Saying goodbye to Washago
The big sendoff for Washago and other sturgeon raised in classrooms and nature centers across Metro Detroit is set for Saturday at an event called Sturgeon Fest, organized by Friends of the St. Clair River.
Both Washago and a second fish currently living at Lake St. Clair Metropark will travel to Port Huron, where they will be released into the lake as part of the region’s breeding population restoration effort.
The event will feature vendors, educational activities and opportunities to go out on a boat to learn more about sturgeon in their natural habitat.