Lake Sturgeon

May 21, 2025

By: Erin Parker, Interpretive Services Supervisor

When you hear the word migration, it probably brings to mind the arrival of songbirds in the spring or perhaps the movement of monarch butterflies on their southward journey in the fall. But few people would immediately think of fish when they think about something like migration! The Lake Sturgeon is just such a fish, one that migrates during the year from rivers and streams to the Great Lakes and Lake St Clair. When your entire journey takes place beneath the water, it may go unnoticed by most people.  Let’s take a deeper dive into the unique life of these gentle giants.

Life Cycle and Migration

The lake sturgeon, once abundant, is slowly recovering from a population crash due to a combination of factors: loss of the rocky substrate on which they spawn, hunting pressures on the adults, and damming or blocking of the rivers in which they migrate. Overall, the population in the Great Lakes is down to about 1% of its historic numbers. But that isn’t the case for the Detroit and St Clair Rivers where there are an estimated 30,000 sturgeon! Despite the region’s long history as a busy industrial corridor, lake sturgeon have persisted and are thriving despite the challenges.

Sturgeon are one of the more primitive groups of fish, with hard bony plates instead of scales. They also take a decade or more to grow to adulthood, with males capable of reproduction at between 8-10 years old and female fish typically reaching their reproductive age at 20-25 years old. By that time, sturgeon can be 6-8 feet long! These gentle giants aren’t fierce predators, however. They spend their lives searching for aquatic invertebrates, crayfish, tiny fish, mussels, clams, and other small bottom-dwelling organisms with their sensitive, whisker-like barbels. They function like a fishy vacuum, slurping up prey and other material and then spitting out the nonedible things like pebbles and sand!

When sturgeon have reached reproductive age, they begin their annual migration as well. For reasons that are still not well understood, not all fish of reproductive age migrate to their spawning areas each year. But those that do are looking for fast-flowing rivers with a rocky, not sandy or silty, bottom. There the females release eggs (estimates range from 50,000 to over a million at a time!) that attach to the rocks. The male fish will then fertilize them. Many organisms happily consume these eggs, but those that escape becoming a tasty meal hatch out in a few days.

Juvenile sturgeon spend the first year or so of their lives in river mouths or nearshore areas in lakes, looking for prey and trying to avoid their many predators. Small fish are readily consumed by a variety of animals including birds, other fish, and mammals. After their first year, they head out into deeper waters in lakes, where they’ll remain and grow until they’re ready to spawn.

Sturgeon in the Classroom…and in the Nature Center

Raising awareness of and engagement with lake sturgeon can be tough- they spend their time near the bottom of our lakes where they are hard to see. Luckily, a program called Sturgeon in the Classroom helps support school children and others in rearing and releasing a juvenile sturgeon for the year. Lake St Clair Nature Center has been participating in the program for three years now. Each year, we receive a young fish in the fall and rear it until it can be released in Lake St Clair in May or June. Young sturgeon are active and inquisitive, making them a great ambassador for their species. Local schools house a sturgeon with students helping to care for the fish, learning about water quality, and making connections with their local aquatic ecosystems. The program is supported by St. Clair- Detroit River Sturgeon for Tomorrow chapter.

Connecting people to the fish helps connect them to roles we all play in keeping our waterways clean and healthy.

Resources and further reading

Lake Sturgeon added to the endangered species list

Sturgeon remain rare, but Detroit River’s population thrives

Sturgeon in the Classroom