Lake sturgeon are nearshore fish that live at water depths of 15-30 feet. They feed along lake bottoms, eating a variety of small animals including snails, crustaceans, aquatic insects, mussels, and small fish. Most lake sturgeon caught today weigh between 30-100 pounds and grow to 3-6 feet in length.
There are twenty-seven species of sturgeon worldwide, eight of which are found in North America. Three species, including the lake sturgeon, spend their entire lives in freshwater.
According to fossil records, lake sturgeon have been on Earth for at least one hundred fifty million years and their biology has remained essentially unchanged. Several of their features harken back to the early evolution of fish. Their skeletons are made of cartilage and their backbones are notochords, a precursor to the spine of most fish caught for food. Sturgeon’s tail fins are shark-like in appearance and their bodies are covered in five rows of pinched cartilage called scutes.
Lake sturgeon are native to the Mississippi, Great Lakes, and Hudson Bay watersheds. Sixteen U.S. states once had significant populations of lake sturgeon: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Adapted from People of the Sturgeon, 2008.