BDN interviews UMaine researchers about finding sturgeons in Milford

The Bangor Daily News spoke with University of Maine researchers for the article, “Why researchers are excited about spotting a pair of sturgeon in Milford.” This spring, the researchers went to the Penobscot River to look for evidence that endangered shortnose sturgeon had spawned in the river for the first time since two dams were removed in recent years, according to the article. Although that wasn’t the case, two shortnose sturgeon were captured at the Milford Dam fish lift, marking the first time since the dams were removed that sturgeon have accessed the entire range of their original native habitat, the article states. “We knew that, historically, they made it up that far in the river,” said Gayle Zydlewski, an associate professor in the School of Marine Sciences, who has been a member of the research team for the past 10 years. But the team had no evidence that sturgeon had moved that far upriver, graduate student Catherine Johnston said. “I was very impressed that sturgeon were able to swim over the Great Works rapids, because if you’ve seen [those rapids] from shore or gone over them in a canoe, they’re kind of intense,” Johnston said. “It was kind of cool that they were able to swim upstream through those rapids. We can’t say at what level of river discharge those two individuals made it over those rapids. That’s something that potentially future tagging efforts could help us identify, if there are other individuals going up there.” More than 30 Penobscot River sturgeon have active acoustic tags, and Zydlewski said the team is seeking funding for additional tags to gather more data on fish movements. The Maine Public Broadcasting Network also published the BDN article.