Sturgeon pile up near the shoreline during the annual sturgeon spawning run on the Wolf River's Bamboo Bend in Shiocton. (PHOTO: Casey Nelson, WTAQ News)
LAKE WINNEBAGO, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — A deadline to potentially put lake sturgeon on the endangered species list is approaching.
If that happens, many Wisconsinites are worried this change could impact one of the state’s longest traditions.
The Lake Winnebago system is home to one of North America’s largest lake sturgeon populations.
“With just about 40,000 fish in the system,” said Margaret Stadig, sturgeon biologist with the Wisconsin DNR.
Every February, thousands of people from all over the country gather at the lake, to take part in the sturgeon spearing season.
“Spearing season is a very historical thing here in Wisconsin, it dates all the way back to the Native American tribes when they were doing it during the winter time to feed family members,” said Stadig.
In 2019, The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it would consider a request to determine if lake sturgeon should receive federal protection. A federal court ordered the service to make a decision by June 30, 2024.
“If they would list it as endangered, it would hurt our sturgeon, it would hurt our local economy and that would just be devastating,” said State Rep. Ty Bodden, R-Hilbert.
Bodden says the state’s sturgeon spearing industry brings in a total economic impact of over $200 million dollars.
“I live in Stockbridge, the sturgeon capital of the world and my small town of just a little under 700 people, balloons and thousands of visitors during the sturgeon spearing season,” said Bodden. “Our bars are full, our restaurants are full, our businesses are full.”
Bodden recently sent a letter to the Department of the Interior, asking for Wisconsin’s sturgeon to be excluded from the endangered species list.
“Once species get on the list, money for restoration plans and those countries tends to flow towards the species that are listed,” said Jeff Miller, senior conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity.
The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the Fish and Wildlife Service to add lake sturgeon as a protected species, triggering an initial review.
But Miller says if sturgeon do go on the list, it doesn’t necessarily mean spearing is over.
“With the listing, I don’t think it will change or restrict any fishing,” said Miller. “The Fish and Wildlife Service has the ability to exempt any programs that it thinks is consistent with recovery.”
Stadig says spearing on the Winnebago Systems helps keep the sturgeon population healthy and regulated. She says the DNR uses numbers from both spearing and spawning season, to calculate the population estimate.
“From there, we are able to calculate kind of that 5% of the population is kind of where are harvest caps are,” said Stadig. “So anything over 5% is a unhealthy harvest amount, and anything under 5%, this population can handle.”
To get to the federal rulemaking website for the review, click here and enter the docket number FWS–R3–ES–2018–0110.
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