Luca Isom, a student at Interlochen Arts Academy, briefly holds a three-month-old sturgeon before releasing it into the Boardman-Ottaway River in downtown Traverse City.
“His skin is like a softer sandpaper,” Isom said. “[The fish] have little points on them, so they’re a little bit rougher to hold. They’re not as slippery as I would've thought they’d be.”
As soon as it’s in the water, the eight-inch sturgeon settles down to the riverbed. Its mottled black and gray skin makes it difficult to see among rocks and twigs.
The small fish will hang out in the river for a few days, then swim out to Lake Michigan to eat and grow for the next 15 to 20 years.
When it returns to the Boardman-Ottaway, it’ll be at least four feet long.
Rearing a rare species
This fish is one of nearly 900 sturgeon released into the river this month.
It’s part of an effort to reintroduce lake sturgeon to waters across the state, after the species was nearly wiped out by decades of overfishing, habitat destruction and damming of the rivers they rely upon to spawn.
“Usually, before we stock fish, we’ll put tobacco in the water to send the fish on their way and give them good thoughts,” said Sean Leask, a fish and wildlife biologist for the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.
The tribe has made a 20-year commitment to raising and releasing sturgeon on the Boardman until there’s a self-sustaining population.
Leask helped collect these fish shortly after they hatched on the Black River in Cheboygan County, where sturgeon still naturally reproduce.
The sturgeon larvae were brought to a rearing facility set up by Leask and his colleagues farther upstream on the Boardman River.
One long PVC pipe shuttles river water through a series of filters and into a 28-foot trailer, where tanks of sturgeon ate and grew over the summer.
Another pipe sends water back out to the river in a nonstop cycle that keeps water in the tanks fresh and cool.
“The reason streamside rearing facilities exist is to facilitate imprinting,” said Dan Mays, inland policy biologist for the Grand Traverse Band. “Imprinting is where the fish hone in on those chemical cues very early in life, so they know where to come back to, to successfully spawn.
Leask said the hope is that when these sturgeon do come back, “they return here and don’t stray around because they’ve actually imprinted on Boardman River water.”
This is the first year of the tribe’s 20-year commitment. Sturgeon are culturally important and used to be abundant here.
“You’d probably have fish camps on the river harvesting sturgeon for meat. [The fish are] pretty oily; you could use the oil,” said Leask. “So it’s a pretty important fish that’s not here anymore.”
Sturgeon haven’t spawned on the Boardman/Ottaway River in more than 150 years. Union Street Dam, the lowermost barrier on the Boardman/Ottaway, was built in 1867, blocking the species’ access to historic spawning grounds.
But a years-long project undamming the Boardman is making a return possible. And the capstone is FishPass, which will replace Union Street Dam, and allow scientists to select which fish can go upstream.
“We wouldn’t be able to do this without FishPass,” said Mays. “FishPass is allowing migratory fish to return back to the Boardman/Ottaway River.”
He says when sturgeon return to spawn in 15 to 20 years, they could have a positive impact on the river’s ecology.
The larval fish will provide food for predator species in the river like trout, and sturgeon don’t stay in rivers long enough after hatching to create serious competition for food.
Plus, Mays said sturgeon are one of a few native Great Lakes fish that can eat and digest Quagga mussels and round gobies, both of which are invasive.
Releasing the fish
Finally releasing the sturgeon is the result of months of work. Leask, Mays and other biologists worked at the streamside rearing trailer almost every single day to check on the fish.
“It’s like having 900 little kids,” said Leask. “You’ve got to feed them every day, clean up after them. Then you worry about them when you’re not here.”
And then they go off on their own.
There have been several sturgeon releases in recent weeks, including with students from Interlochen Arts Academy, TCAPS Montessori and Glen Lake Elementary — many of whom will begin raising sturgeon in their classrooms this year.
For the scientists, each release is important but a routine part of the work. For others, it’s a cultural moment.
At the first release of the season on a Saturday in early September, Grand Traverse Band singers La’Kota Raphael and Aaron Chivis welcomed people to a park along the Boardman-Ottaway with a song.
Tribal members released the very first sturgeon from this rearing project in the river.
It’s likely been more than 150 years since sturgeon this young have been in the Boardman-Ottaway. And the ones that do survive will outlive many of us.
Thanks to GTB News for sharing audio of the sturgeon release ceremony welcoming song. Hear part of it at the end of the audio version of this story, in the player above.