By Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute
When it comes to conservation, scientists often echo Benjamin Franklin’s advice: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. But for Tennessee’s lake sturgeon, prevention wasn’t enough to stop their decline.
Rebuilding a species is far more complex and costly than protecting it in the first place, requiring years of research, collaboration and persistence.
Over the past 25 years, that reality has shaped efforts in the Southeast, where the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute and its partners have focused on restoring lake sturgeon to the state’s waterways.
“It’s both frustrating and rewarding to wait 25 years to learn whether your work has been successful,” says Dr. Bernie Kuhajda, the aquarium’s aquatic conservation biologist.
A declining population
One of North America’s most ancient freshwater fish, the lake sturgeon, first appeared in the late Jurassic Period more than 100 million years ago.
Once abundant in Tennessee, the species’ population in the Volunteer State withered due to overfishing, poor water quality and the migratory and reproductive interruptions caused by the construction of dams. By the 1970s, the lake sturgeon harvest accelerated until the population experienced what scientists call “an almost perfect fishing collapse.” At that point, the species was determined to be locally extinct.
Did you know? Between 1879 and 1900, fishermen caught an average of 4 million pounds of sturgeon a year.
With prevention no longer possible, scientists began assessing the cost of a cure.
The stage was first set with the passage of the Clean Water Act of 1972. The protections this landmark legislation imparted — combined with a statewide ban on fishing for lake sturgeon and changes to dam management — dramatically improved conditions in the Tennessee River and, consequently, the lake sturgeon’s prospects for a comeback.
Conservation comes to the rescue
In 1998, the aquarium and a collection of partnering nonprofits, government agencies and universities founded the Southeast Lake Sturgeon Working Group. Their plan was to raise and release lake sturgeon in the hopes of building up a population that could become self-sustaining and, eventually, fishable.
Every spring, working group members collect and hatch eggs from wild spawning adults in Wisconsin’s Wolf River, where the species’ population is still robust. After a summer spent in human care, the baby fish had grown large enough to safely reenter the river.
Each juvenile lake sturgeon holds enormous potential, including the capacity to reach a massive size. Fully grown adults can grow up to 8 feet long and weigh more than 300 pounds. They’re extremely long-lived as well, with the official record holder surviving for 152 years.
To learn more about lake sturgeon, watch “Catch and Release” from Season 2 of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild.
In 2000, lake sturgeon were first reintroduction in Tennessee in the French Broad River near Knoxville.
“It was wonderful to see the support we had, the interest that there was in it and this grand hope that one day there would be an abundance of lake sturgeon throughout the Tennessee River system,” said Ed Scott, a now-retired fisheries biologist who led the recovery effort.
“Getting sturgeon back, as a fisheries biologist or a fisheries manager, is literally the biggest contribution we can make to the river and to the people of Tennessee,” Scott said.
Did you know? Lake sturgeon mostly feed on worms (such as leaches), snails, small fish and larvae. This species has no teeth, so its food is swallowed whole.
A special anniversary
The work Scott began 25 years ago continues. In 2025, an excited group of public officials, students and passing onlookers joined the aquarium’s scientists to assist with a bittersweet milestone as the reintroduction effort celebrated its silver anniversary.
Gathered on the banks of the Tennessee River as it flowed through downtown Chattanooga, participants descended to the water’s edge and gently released about 500 “graduating” sturgeon into the river.
These events help shore up the river’s population. They also create a bond between the public and a species that could be enjoyed by future generations of Tennesseans.
“Some of the education that goes on during a reintroduction is telling folks, ‘You’re releasing this fish, and it’s going to be around for 100 years,’” said Brandon Simcox, statewide rivers and streams program manager for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. “That gives them a long-term connection to those fish that they’re putting out into the river.”
Did you know? Unlike other sturgeon species, the lake sturgeon doesn’t migrate into the ocean seasonally. It prefers to inhabit freshwater lakes and rivers.
To date, Lake Sturgeon restoration efforts in the Tennessee and Cumberland River watersheds have reintroduced more than 435,000 fish — roughly equal to the population of Minneapolis. Even this mammoth figure is no guarantee of the program’s success, though.
Like many long-lived species, lake sturgeon mature slowly. Females don’t reach sexual maturity until around age 20. That means the first fish released at the turn of the century are only now old enough to produce a new, wild-born generation.
Fortunately, recent developments suggest the recovery is entering a new, long-awaited stage.
Swimming toward a brighter future
Just in time for the 25th yearly release of juvenile lake sturgeon, the species’ conservation status in Tennessee was downgraded from “endangered” to “threatened.”
“I’m positive the down listing is a result of the Southeast Lake Sturgeon Working Group’s efforts,” Kuhajda said.
In another hopeful sign, wildlife managers also have recovered female lake sturgeon that are gravid (full of eggs), and anglers have reported seeing potential spawning activity. Officials haven’t verified these reports, but the main stem of the Tennessee River is more than 650 miles long, not counting its many tributaries. In a system that large — and with only a handful of biologists to monitor it — working group members’ confidence is high that breeding is happening out of sight.
To those who have supported the restoration effort for years, these recent gains — following decades of patient work — echo another bit of Benjamin Franklin’s wisdom: “He that can have patience can have what he will.”
Learn More about the Tennessee Aquarium
Watch “Save Our Waterways” with Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild Co-Host Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant. Dr. Rae heads to the Volunteer State to help clean up plastic waste along the Tennessee River.
The waterways of the southeastern United States are home to more than 1,400 aquatic species, making it one of the nation’s richest freshwater ecosystems. In this short video, “Biodiversity in Southeastern Waters,” you’ll learn how conservationist are working to preserve and protect this vital habitat.
