A recent study tracking the lifespan of lake sturgeon in the Great Lakes is making waves, finding that the prehistoric fish can live up to 427 years old — more than 275 years longer than previously thought.
Considered the oldest and largest native fish species in the Great Lakes, lake sturgeon have an annual survival probability of 97% — a significantly higher probability than most freshwater fish, which can be closer to 50%, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
Still, because lake sturgeon produce very few offspring per year, harvest regulations in Michigan are famously conservative to avoid overfishing. During this year’s brief Black Lake sturgeon fishing season, regulators set the harvest limit at six sturgeon total, which anglers hit within 48 minutes.
The previous year, the harvest season ended in only 17 minutes — setting a new record for the shortest season ever.
“Without the publicity that the brief, limited harvest season provides, the public wouldn’t know as much about all the ongoing restoration efforts for Black Lake sturgeon, like research, stocking, the sturgeon guard program, fundraising, and education and outreach,” said Tim Cwalinski, Northern Lake Huron Unit manager for the DNR. “Not only is the harvest important to the anglers and the local community, but these are also the same people investing in ongoing and successful restoration programs.”
Published in April in the Journal of Fish Biology, the collaborative study from researchers at the DNR, Michigan State University and Michigan Technological University involved capturing, measuring, tagging, and releasing five different Great Lakes lake sturgeon populations over a period of 44 years.
The data was then used to estimate the species’ longevity by comparing how much each fish grew between the first and subsequent recaptures.
While previous research found that lake sturgeon have a lifespan up to 150 years, data from the latest study found its longevity ranged from 90 to 279 years for males and from 99 to 427 years for females — a lifespan nearly long as the longest-lived vertebrate on Earth: the Greenland shark, which researchers estimate can live up to 512 years old.
Retired DNR fisheries supervisor Michael Donofrio called the new research “groundbreaking,” adding that it can help other North American sturgeon management efforts.
To learn more about lake sturgeon in Michigan, visit michigan.gov/sturgeon.