Photo credit: Todd Marsee, Michigan Sea Grant
Community members and conservation partners helped release young lake sturgeon into the Saginaw Bay watershed during a series of public events in August and September 2025. At each riverside reintroduction event, attendees helped release more than 100 native sturgeon into each tributary of the Saginaw River system (e.g., Cass, Flint, Shiawassee, and Tittabawassee rivers). On both release days, Michigan Sea Grant helped coordinate and host events in Midland, Chesaning, Flint, and Frankenmuth. In 2025, around 600 people helped release nearly 1000 juvenile lake sturgeon — bringing the regional total to 7,500 released since 2017.
The sturgeon released in August came from the Black River in Cheboygan County. They hatched in the river as a result of natural reproduction. In May 2025, researchers from the Michigan State University Department of Fisheries & Wildlife and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources moved the fish to the Black Lake Streamside Rearing Facility for safekeeping. The September batch came from Lake Huron near the upper St. Clair River. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reared them at the Genoa National Fish Hatchery in Wisconsin.
Photo credit: Todd Marsee, Michigan Sea Grant
The young fish spent the summer growing to 4-6 inches in length before their release. All of the released fish were tagged for tracking through state and federal recapture programs; some had additional tags for acoustic telemetry tracking.
Lake sturgeon, a native Great Lakes fish that can reach 3-6 feet long and 50-200 years old, were once abundant in Michigan rivers and lakes. After European colonization, a century of overfishing and habitat destruction decimated lake sturgeon populations. Efforts are now underway by many organizations, including Michigan Sea Grant, to restore historical lake sturgeon habitat, raise juvenile fish, release them into Michigan’s rivers, and track their success as adults.
For years, Michigan Sea Grant has coordinated with many partners to hold annual public riverside release events of juvenile fish into the Saginaw River system. These events help raise awareness and appreciation for this iconic species and have become a recurring highlight for many local families. One participant remarked, “The sturgeon release is by far our favorite activity of the summer — my kids talk about it multiple times a year!”
Photo credit: MDNR
All this hard work is already showing results. In October 2025, Michigan Department of Natural Resources staff captured a sturgeon while running a fish survey in the Saginaw River system. Scanning its hatchery tag revealed that the sturgeon had originally been released into the Tittabawassee River in 2018. At its release, the juvenile fish was seven inches long — by the time it was re-captured and released, the fish had reached 3.25 feet. Given another decade or two, the fish should be ready to start reproducing and creating the next generation of Great Lakes giants.
Learn more and get involved at www.saginawbaysturgeon.org
