Baby Atlantic sturgeon found in Virginia river for first time in nearly a decade

For nearly a decade, researchers with Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond would conduct a trawl survey on the James River, never to come across any baby Atlantic sturgeon — a species that was listed as endangered in 2012.

But recently that changed, raising researchers’ hopes that what the university says was “once-plentiful ancient fish” is making a comeback in the area.

Researchers with the Rice Rivers Center — which “is at the center of the Virginia Sturgeon Restoration Team’s effort to restore the sturgeon to its native range and historical stature within state waters,” according to a news release from Virginia Commonwealth University — found the fish earlier this month while conducting a trawl survey, a method of catching fish with a net attached to a boat.

As of Monday, nearly 148 baby sturgeon have been found in the James River.

“We’re really excited,” one of the researchers, Matt Balazik, said in a statement. “It’s been very encouraging. After going out all those times and catching nothing, it’s been rewarding to start to see these fish at this stage.”

Though researchers have previously identified more than 600 different adult sturgeon, the “imbalance between researchers’ findings of adult fish and younger fish has been a source of concern because it indicates possible issues preventing survival at a rate to sustain the population in the James,” the university explained.

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