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Evidence of Declining Recruitment of Atlantic Sturgeon in the Hudson River
Author(s) -
Peterson Douglas L.,
Bain Mark B.,
Haley Nancy
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
north american journal of fisheries management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.587
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1548-8675
pISSN - 0275-5947
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8675(2000)020<0231:eodroa>2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - fishery , sturgeon , juvenile , population , biology , acipenser , hatchery , habitat , geography , ecology , fish <actinopterygii> , demography , sociology
The Hudson River supports one of the largest remaining populations of Atlantic sturgeon Acipenser oxyrinchus; however, recent evidence of major declines in recruitment during the past decade suggests that the population may be in jeopardy. The scarcity of juveniles observed in recent years suggests that current levels of recruitment are too low to sustain the population. The primary goal of this study was to attain quantitative data on recruitment rates of juvenile Atlantic sturgeon in the Hudson River. From Jun through Oct 1995, hatchery‐reared juveniles, marked and released in 1994, were collected with wild juveniles by randomized gill‐net sampling distributed throughout the known distribution of age‐1 juveniles. All stocked fish were double‐marked with a clipped pelvic fin and an internal coded wire tag. During the sampling period we captured 15 marked and 14 unmarked age‐1 Atlantic sturgeon. Using a Petersen mark–recapture population estimator, we calculated that there were 4,314 wild age‐1 Atlantic sturgeon in the Hudson River in 1995, a decline of about 80% from the similarly conducted population estimate of 1977. This estimate, along with other current fisheries monitoring data, provides evidence of a substantial decline in recruitment during the past decade.