Twenty-Six-Year-Old Sturgeon Caught in the Hudson

According to the Cornell Chronicle, researchers working on a fish population survey captured a shortnose sturgeon in the Hudson River that had been tagged during a similar research study 26 years ago.

The fish was tagged in 1995 in the same “wintering” area near Staatsburg, N.Y., where it had been caught and released by Cornell’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS).

In 1995, the fish was estimated at 15 years old and measured 25.5 inches in length. This November the same fish was measured at 33.5 inches, showing the slow growth of endangered shortnose sturgeon.

“That’s a long time to be at large and still alive,” says Amanda Higgs, a research support specialist in the DNR. “This overwintering area [of the Hudson] was important back then, and it’s still important [to sturgeon].”

Atlantic sturgeon also are found in the Hudson, but are much larger than shortnose sturgeon, according to…