An environmental group has asked the U.S. government to declare the Atlantic sturgeon, a prehistoric fish found in the Chesapeake Bay and other Virginia waters, an endangered species.
States from Maine to Florida enacted a ban on catching the large, armored fish in 1998. But the moratorium has not helped to restore sturgeon populations to sustainable levels, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, the group asking for endangered status.
Kate Slusark, a council spokeswoman in New York City, said Thursday that the group filed its petition with the federal government on Sept. 30 and that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has 90 days to respond.
If the service finds enough scientific evidence to support the petition, it would have another 12 months to determine whether to list the fish as threatened or endangered, Slusark said.
The shortnose sturgeon, a cousin of the Atlantic sturgeon also found in Virginia waters, already is classified as an endangered species. An attempt in 1997 to declare the Atlantic sturgeon as endangered was rejected.
Coveted for its eggs, which are made into caviar, the Atlantic sturgeon is thought to have existed when dinosaurs roamed Earth. The fish, with orange-colored plates on its body and a long snout, was a staple of Native Americans and English colonists in Virginia.
They typically grow to between 6 and 10 feet long and weigh as much as 600 pounds. They most often are found today in the James River, where researchers keep tabs on their trends.
Sturgeon face numerous threats to their survival, including water pollution, dams, dredging, ship strikes and rising ocean temperatures, said Brad Sewell, a Natural Resources Defense Council attorney who filed the federal petition.
Scott Harper, (757) 446-2340, scott.harper@pilotonline.com
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