SHIOCTON, Wis. — The highly anticipated Wisconsin sturgeon spawning season is underway.
Crowds gathered to watch on Sunday as sturgeon in Lake Winnebago started to swim upstream to spawn.
“I always like coming to watch the sturgeon run,” said Renolle Volz, who drove from the suburbs of Milwaukee to watch. “It’s very interesting and very entertaining, how they tag them down there at the other end, and how they net them. Then they weigh and tag them, and they send them down the slippery slide back into the water.”
Sturgeon are considered to be a prehistoric fish. They are known to live and grow longer than any other fish in Wisconsin. The state has a naturally reproducing lake sturgeon population in several of its river systems.
Spawning is the first of the many stages for the sturgeon. In order for spawning to happen, the water temperature needs to be around 50 degrees.
Emily McParlane with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources said they’re expecting a quick spawn this season because of the warmer weather.
McParlane and her team collect data on the sex and length of each sturgeon in Lake Winnebago. They also tag them for recapture later in the year.
“We have one of the largest lake sturgeon populations here in Wisconsin,” said McParlane. “In doing this, we are able to not only get our population estimate numbers, but later on we’ll also be taking eggs. Those eggs will go all over the country to help rehabilitate other lake sturgeon populations.”
Both DNR officials and people at Sunday’s event said it’s incredible to see the surgeon jump and splash around in the river.