New reefs will help an ancient fish thrive again in river

[Spiel]

New reefs will help an ancient fish thrive again in river

 

 

April 28, 2008

BARBARA ARRIGO / Detroit Free press

 

 

The guest of honor was 5-foot-6, weighed 72 pounds and was at least 35 years old. Gender could not be determined.

 

The sturgeon arrived late but absolutely stole the show at an April 19 fete for a new chapter of the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge. For the first time, money has come together from both sides of the river -- loonies and bucks in the same pot! -- for a project, a sturgeon spawning reef to be laid in the river this fall.

 

The reception, speeches and champagne toast took place on Fighting Island, on the Canadian side of the river and owned by BASF Corp. U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn, and his Canadian counterpart, Jeff Watson, a member of Parliament for much of Essex County, had the spotlight as the political parents of the wildlife refuge.

 

So much for the formalities. Politicians and press, funders and biologists all rushed out of the BASF lodge to see the sturgeon, brought dockside by two biologists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

 

You don't get to see sturgeon very often. They lie deep in the water and, given their size, aren't easy to haul up. But they are increasingly active beneath the surface of a river many of us see every day. As a sign that the Detroit River has beaten back its worst pollution, their viability amounts to a big fish story in more ways than one.

 

Sturgeon hark back to the time of the dinosaurs. Their recorded history suggests the Lake Huron-to-Lake Erie channel hosted the biggest numbers in the Great Lakes, and maybe in all of North America. They especially liked to loll in the Detroit River, which had nine known spawning sites.

 

Then our early Detroit predecessors nearly wiped them out, especially after discovering how well the oily fish burned in ship boilers.

 

But sturgeon can live a century or more, and at least a few of them never gave up completely on the Detroit River. Biologists started spotting them just off Zug Island during spawning season, and in 2001 finally collected eggs that proved sturgeon were once again reproducing.

 

Sturgeon romance has precise equivalents to wine and candles. The ambience has to start with clean flowing water, which Detroit River restoration work has delivered.

 

Next: not a moon in the sky above but chunks of rock in the riverbed below. Bottom material must have deep enough crevices to keep sturgeon eggs safe from predators and to protect hatchlings until they float downstream to wetlands and other shoreline hiding places.

 

Excitement about the Fighting Island spawning reef has spread like a contagion among the fishery crowd. Bruce Manny, a fishery biologist and sturgeon expert for the U.S. Geological Survey, brimmed with enthusiasm about what the next few years will reveal about sturgeon and the river. The Fighting Island channel reef has special potential, he said, because it lies upstream from some of the river's last open spots of shoreline on the Canadian side -- perfect nurseries for baby sturgeon.

 

Jim McFee, one of the biologists who brought the sturgeon in for inspection, is working the river intensively these days for the baseline study before the reef goes in. He caught and tagged an even bigger sturgeon April 22. Length: about 7 feet; weight: beyond his scale's 132-pound capacity.

 

Anticipation of sturgeon lovefests is spreading well beyond the biologists, too. The $178,000 in reef funding comes from foundations as well as government sources, with additional in-kind donations by BASF and DTE. The teamwork, essential to the refuge, shows how many borders can be crossed when people find a common motive.

 

And few motives may be as satisfying as boosting new generations of sturgeon, a fish that endured whatever wiped out the dinosaurs only to barely survive its encounter with people plopping industrial operations up and down the river's banks.

 

John Dingell, in particular, was beaming as he watched another piece fall into place for his beloved refuge. "This is the most selfish damn thing I do," he said. "It is one of my great pleasures."