Prehistoric sturgeon fish set to spawn in Georgia for first time in 50 years

August 17, 2022

Lake sturgeon could be about to reproduce again in Georgia for the first time in half a century.

Scientists and students carrying out the largest population study of the prehistoric fish since 2002 have found three females with mature eggs.

The armoured "living fossils" were wiped out from the Coosa River in the 1970s thanks to polluted water and demand for caviar and fish meat.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources began reintroducing lake sturgeon 20 years ago, after the Clean Water Act cleaned up the river, University of Georgia associate professor Marty Hamel explained.

The female sturgeon take some 20 to 25 years to mature.

So researchers were only just able to tell whether the scheme had worked and the fish were surviving long enough to reproduce.

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