GRAND FORKS — There was palpable relief across the Lake of the Woods and Rainy River tourism sector Monday, with news that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) won’t recommend that lake sturgeon be listed for federal protection under the Endangered Species Act.
The FWS issued a news release shortly before 8 a.m. Monday, April 22, saying a “thorough species status assessment” using the best available science led the agency to determine lake sturgeon do not require listing under the Endangered Species Act. The FWS said its 12-month finding shows ongoing management efforts, such as fish stocking, have contributed to the conservation and resiliency of the species.
“Today’s announcement shows the power of collaborative conservation and the impact it can have for species like the lake sturgeon,” Will Meeks, Midwest regional director for the FWS in Bloomington, Minnesota, said in a statement. “The fact that we’re seeing more and more lake sturgeon populations spawning in their historical habitat is a clear sign that restoration efforts are progressing. This success is credited to many partners including states, tribes, local organizations and others across the country coming together to conserve this species.”
‘Huge relief’
No one, perhaps, was happier to hear Monday’s news than Kevin Hinrichs of Baudette, Minnesota – aka, “The Dutchman” – who owns Royal Dutchman Resort on the Rainy River with his wife, Jenn.
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Sturgeon fishing is a “large majority” of the resort’s business, Hinrichs said.
“It’s a huge relief,” Hinrichs told the Herald. “It was a big monkey sitting on our back. Worry was very high around here.
“There were many days I was wondering what would happen if there was a determination to list, because a large majority of our business is based off of people coming up to make memories. For most of the people, it isn’t about harvesting the fish – it’s about coming, catching fish and making it a tradition that they pass on from generation, to generation, to generation, to generation. It’s one of the greatest moments of fishing that you get to witness when people get their first sturgeon.”
Lake sturgeon, which can reach weights in excess of 100 pounds, have a prehistoric appearance because of their large size, shark-like tails and bony plate-armored covering. With origins dating back at least 150 million years, lake sturgeon are one of the largest freshwater fish in North America, occupying rivers and lakes across the eastern and central U.S. and Canada.
2018 petition
Monday’s ruling came in response to a 2018 petition filed by the Center for Biological Diversity requesting that the FWS either list lake sturgeon for federal protection throughout its range or as several “Distinct Population Segments” under the Endangered Species Act.
The FWS faced a court-ordered deadline of June 30 to decide whether federal protection was warranted. While lake sturgeon populations in parts of the Great Lakes and Mississippi River drainage have “declined by roughly 99% over the past century or so,” according to the Center, the population is doing well on Lake of the Woods, Rainy River and throughout the species’ range in Minnesota, including the Red River Basin.
In its news release, the FWS said the most widespread ongoing conservation action considered in the assessment was the stocking of captive-reared lake sturgeon. Stocking programs have led to increases in adult lake sturgeon and spawning behaviors. Although populations are not at historical levels, these successful programs have both bolstered existing populations and returned lake sturgeon to areas where they had disappeared, the FWS said. That includes the Red River of the North, the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, the Middle Mississippi River and the Coosa River in Alabama and Georgia.
Other successful conservation measures include restoring habitat connectivity through dam removal, fish passages and habitat restoration. Nowhere, perhaps, is that more apparent than on the Red River of the North, where the Drayton Dam – the last of eight low-head dams on the U.S. portion of the river – was removed in 2023 and replaced with a rock-riffle fishway that accommodates fish passage while still holding back water for community needs.
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‘Very pleased’
Brad Parsons, Fisheries Section manager for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in St. Paul, said the agency is “very pleased” by Monday’s FWS ruling.
“We have good science on our sturgeon populations,” Parsons told the Herald. “We’re very pleased with the trajectory they’re going on. We’ve got more work planned in reconnecting other parts, particularly in the Red River Basin – lake outlets and things like that – throughout the basin.
“And we’re excited.”
The DNR was “very cognizant” of how important lake sturgeon fishing is to the tourism industry on Lake of the Woods and Rainy River, Parsons said – especially during the spring “shoulder season” between end of ice fishing and the mid-May walleye opener.
The DNR estimates there are nearly 100,000 lake sturgeon over 40 inches in length on the Rainy River and portions of U.S. and Ontario waters of Lake of the Woods. That’s up from 59,000 in 2004 and nearly six times the estimate of 16,910 in the late 1980s, the DNR said.
The sturgeon population up there “can certainly” handle the fishing pressure it gets, Parsons said, which includes a limited harvest season, a strict protected slot limit and extensive periods when fishing is limited to catch-and-release only.
“The folks that are fishing or guiding, they’re doing it right,” Parsons said. “They're celebrating the recovery just like we are in other parts of the state.”
In another nod to the species’ recovery, the DNR in recent years opened a catch-and-release sturgeon season elsewhere in Minnesota and on the Red River.
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“Sturgeon are unique for a lot of reasons, but they handle catch-and-release fishing really well,” Parsons said. “So, we’re really happy and we’re going to continue doing the good work we’re doing.”
Joe Henry, executive director of Lake of the Woods Tourism, channeled the words of Zig Ziglar, the late American author, salesman and motivational speaker, in his reaction to the FWS ruling.
“He said one of the things was to do everything possible at every given moment,” Henry said. “And the other one is – do the right thing. Just live your life by doing the right thing. You know in your gut whether it’s right or not. And with the sturgeon issue, we knew that this was the right thing. And I think that’s why we were all proactive and doing everything we could. There’s a lot that was out of our control in this situation, but let’s control what we can control.”
That included reaching out to federal lawmakers such as U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber, R-Minn., who visited Royal Dutchman Resort and posted a video about the issue in March; and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., who wrote to the FWS about the importance of sturgeon fishing to the Lake of the Woods economy, Henry said.
“To have resorts and legislators and our media friends and everybody kind of pitching in getting the message out there that, ‘Here’s what it’s like in our part of the world, please don’t mess this up. It doesn’t make sense to mess it up,’ ” Henry said. “ ‘Please let the Minnesota DNR manage this. They’re on top of it, they care. It’s the right thing to do.’ ”
- On the web:
The Service’s not-warranted 12-month finding on the petition to list the lake sturgeon under the ESA and supporting information for the decision are available for public inspection in the Federal Register Reading Room and will publish in the Federal Register on Tuesday, April 23. More information can be found at www.regulations.gov under docket number FWS-R3-ES-2024-0022.
The Trust Project
