The Atlantic Sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrhynchus) is the largest and longest-lived aquatic organism in the Atlantic rivers of North America. In colonial times, sturgeon could live to 100 years of age, reach eight feet in length, and weigh up to 300 pounds. They have continued to exist well beyond the era of the dinosaurs into the present day, but only in extremely limited numbers.
Luckily, Virginians have a unique opportunity to see Atlantic Sturgeon by taking advantage of Captain Mike Ostrander’s “Discover the James” boat tours. (Information on dates and costs can be found at http://discoverthejames.com/?q=content/atlantic-sturgeon-tour)
You have a wonderful likelihood of seeing the males in the James River by taking a trip in August or September. My husband and I took one of these tours last year and I would say it was far better than most of the whale-watching tours that I have been on.
Whales are so large that even when they breach (throw themselves up and out of the water), you only get to see a small part of the body and thus really don’t often get much of an image of what the animal actually looks like.
A sturgeon, on the other hand, completely jumps out of the water so that you can actually glimpse the entire creature. And at five feet long, it’s large enough to be easily seen, even from a distance.
Additionally, while sightings are not guaranteed for either whale or sturgeon watching, our experience suggests that you are far more likely to see several sturgeon than you are to get even one good look at a whale. I saw more sturgeon come up out of the water on just one trip than I have seen whales after taking many trips.
Sturgeon have been on the planet for over 120 million years, appearing in the fossil record when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. But following the arrival of Europeans on this continent and their discovery of the economic value of these fish, beginning in the 1700s, sturgeon populations started to plummet.
The folks in Jamestown harvested sturgeon to sell for a profit and soon these fish were being harvested in other fisheries along the Atlantic coast. However, almost up to the 20th century, most major river systems from Canada to Florida still contained populations of Atlantic Sturgeon.
Sadly, due to overfishing and pollution of the waterways, sturgeon have disappeared from some rivers along our east coast and today survive only in low numbers where they have managed to hold on. Spawning populations (those in which males and females get together to reproduce) are very rare, but in Virginia small populations are still coming up the James River and the York River to try to perpetuate the species.
The Atlantic Sturgeon is an anadromous fish, which means that it spends most of its life at sea and only enters fresh water to reproduce. In most waterways, these fish swim upriver only in the spring, but here in Virginia, we have a population that also makes a late-summer-into-fall run up the James from the Chesapeake Bay. Scientists are studying these animals to see if they might be a separate population from the spring spawners.
The boat trip starts about suppertime. On our trip, Captain Mike supplied a wonderful array of sandwiches, soft drinks and water, and a fruit tray of such variety and abundance that people were still snacking on fruits as we headed back to shore after a couple of hours on the water!
A late summer, early evening ride on a pontoon boat is very pleasant, even if you aren’t expecting to view something as historic and rare in nature as Atlantic Sturgeon. I highly encourage you to take advantage of this delightful opportunity that we are lucky enough to have so close to our homes right here in Virginia!
Naturalist Marlene A. Condon is the author/photographer of The Nature-friendly Garden: Creating a Backyard Haven for Plants, Wildlife, and People (Stackpole Books; information at www.marlenecondon.com). If you have a question about plants or animals, or gardening in a nature-friendly manner, send it to [email protected] and please watch for an answer in this paper.