Scientists Use 44 Years of Capture Data to Show Great Lakes Sturgeon Can Live Over 400 Years

A team of scientists led by Ed Baker, a fisheries scientist with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, examined more than four decades of capture‑recapture records for lake sturgeon across the Great Lakes.

For many years, researchers estimated a sturgeon's age by counting annual growth rings in a cross‑section of a fin ray, but the rings become hard to see as the fish gets older.

Instead of rings, Baker and his colleagues used 44 years of data that recorded each fish’s length at every capture. By measuring how much each individual grew between captures, they could model how long it would take a sturgeon to reach adult size using real‑world growth rates.

One striking example involved a male sturgeon that measured 117 cm when first caught in 1990. The same fish was recaught 34 years later and had grown only seven centimetres – roughly 0.21 cm per year.

Applying the observed growth rates to the model produced age estimates that stretched into centuries. "We're pretty comfortable saying that there are potentially 400‑year‑old lake sturgeon swimming around," Baker said, noting that these ages are far beyond the traditional estimate of up to 150 years.

The discovery changes how biologists think about conserving a species that may live for several hundred years, because restoration plans that span a few decades might not match the fish’s own lifespan.

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