Edenton Hatchery plays big role in effort to revive lake sturgeon Hatchery also leads effort to restore other aquatic wildlife populations By Chris Day Albemarle Magazine
Jimmie Garth, the lead fish biologist at the Edenton National Fish Hatchery, is seen on the Tennessee River holding a lake sturgeon that was raised at the Edenton hatchery, during a recent fish sampling trip on the Tennessee River.
EDENTON — North Carolina’s dwindling population of lake sturgeon is getting a boost by a multi-agency effort that includes the Edenton National Fish Hatchery. The hatchery received its annual batch of lake sturgeon on Wednesday, May 26, said veterinarian and hatchery manager Sonia Mumford. The fry of sturgeon arrived about 30 days after being hatched at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hatchery in Warm Springs, Georgia. ‘They are tiny,” Mumford said. “What they look like are tadpoles.” The Edenton hatchery will grow the sturgeon to lengths of about 6 to 9 inches before they are released in the French Broad River outside Asheville. Some also will be released in the Tennessee River in Knoxville, Tennessee, Mumford said. Lake sturgeon, one of about two dozen species of sturgeon, were once prevalent in North Carolina and the Tennessee River, according to Mumford. “They were incredibly common in the late 1800s,” she said. Overharvesting, in part because of their prized eggs used as caviar and the fact they are good to eat, led to a depression in population numbers and to near extinction in North Carolina. Efforts to revive the fish began 19 years ago, and the Edenton hatchery has been involved the last six years. “This has been a longstanding program in the
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Albemarle Magazine Summer 2021