Local/Regional News

Four years later, a sturgeon returns to the Boardman-Ottaway River

Interlochen Public Radio | By Ellie Katz

Published May 14, 2025 at 6:54 PM EDT

Great Lakes Fishery Commission biologist Reid Swanson holds a female lake sturgeon found on the Boardman-Ottaway River in 2021. It's extremely rare for sturgeon to be seen in the river, since there hasn't been suitable spawning habitat for more than 150. This month, that same sturgeon returned to the Boardman-Ottaway after four years spent mostly in Grand Traverse Bay. (Photo: Great Lakes Fishery Commission) — Great Lakes Fishery Commission biologist Reid Swanson holds a female lake sturgeon found on the Boardman-Ottaway River in 2021. It's extremely rare for sturgeon to be seen in the river, since there hasn't been suitable spawning habitat for more than 150. This month, that same sturgeon returned to the Boardman-Ottaway after four years spent mostly in Grand Traverse Bay. *(Photo: Great Lakes Fishery Commission)*

So when biologists with the Great Lakes Fishery Commission and the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians found a lake sturgeon in the Boardman-Ottaway River in 2021, they tagged it.

In the last four years, the female sturgeon has mostly stayed in East and West Grand Traverse Bay, occasionally venturing up to Little Traverse Bay.

"But it was this spring that we actually had the first detection of her at the DNR weir. So this is the first time she actually returned back to the river," said Dan Zielinski, a scientist with the Great Lakes Fishery Commission and project lead on FishPass.

Sturgeon haven't been able to spawn on the Boardman-Ottaway River since 1867.

But in anticipation of FishPass, which will replace the final dam on Union Street, Grand Traverse Band biologists have begun stocking lake sturgeon on the river.

Zielinski said this sturgeon is a good sign that those stocked sturgeon will return when they're old enough to spawn in about 15 years. And it could mean this sturgeon returns to spawn one day, too.

"To see her come back just gives us a lot of hope that she hopefully is an individual that will be seen numerous times," Zielinski said. "They can live very long and will probably be returning to this river long after I'm involved in this."

He said the last time the weir's antennas detected the sturgeon was about two weeks ago. She could still be in the river, or could have returned to her year-round home in Grand Traverse Bay.