Overview
- The study, published in April, used 44 years of capture–measure–tag–release records from five Great Lakes populations to estimate sturgeon longevity.
- Researchers report sex-specific ranges with males estimated at about 90–279 years and females up to roughly 99–427 years, far above prior caps near 150 years.
- Those extreme ages were inferred by extrapolating long-term growth rates rather than by directly aging any individual fish, a key methodological limitation the authors note.
- Managers say the species’ biology—late maturity, low reproductive output, and a high annual survival rate of about 97%—makes populations slow to recover and sensitive to even small harvests.
- The findings have renewed attention on tight harvest rules and restoration work, and they feed ongoing policy debates after a 2024 denial of wider Endangered Species Act protections and a 2026 lawsuit seeking stronger safeguards.