Contact:  Mary Colligan,  (NMFS)           FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
          Diana Weaver,  (FWS)             9/21/98

The National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will not propose Endangered Species Act protection for the U.S. population of the Atlantic sturgeon. The decision, based on an extensive review of the species' status, was announced today by regional managers for the two agencies in the Northeast.

"There is no doubt that Atlantic sturgeon have been severely overfished," said Jon Rittgers, acting Northeast regional administrator of the National Marine Fisheries Service. "But the range-wide prohibition on harvest and possession in all the coastal states, recently formalized as a long-term moratorium by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, has removed that threat to the species."

Ron Lambertson, northeast regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, agreed, saying, "With the complete closure of the fishery, we are confident that populations will be increasing. Restoration of this slow-maturing fish will be a lengthy process and firm commitments to the necessary long-term protections are already in place."

Although the agencies decided ESA listing is not warranted, NMFS will retain the Atlantic sturgeon on its candidate species list to facilitate voluntary conservation. Consideration of the species for protection under the Endangered Species Act was initiated by a 1997 petition from the Biodiversity Legal Foundation of Boulder, Colo., which requested protection for Atlantic sturgeon where it continues to exist in the United States. The agencies published a preliminary decision in October 1997 that they would consider whether the species met the criteria for listing as threatened or endangered.

An endangered species is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range; a threatened species is likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range.

A status review team, comprised of biologists from the National Marine Fisheries Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and three state agencies, conducted an in- depth review of the species' status, concluding that the species is neither threatened nor endangered. A river-by-river assessment of habitat conditions found that, while some specific problems exist and further improvements would accelerate the species' restoration, current overall habitat conditions for Atlantic sturgeon are better than those under which the species rebounded from overfishing and persisted during the first half of this century.

Atlantic sturgeon are currently protected by state laws under the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission fisheries management plan for the species. The plan bans the harvest and possession of Atlantic sturgeon along the entire Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida. The commission is working with the National Marine Fisheries Service to develop compatible regulations that would provide the same protections in federal waters out to 200 miles.

Historic Atlantic sturgeon populations in the United States ranged from the Penobscot River in Maine to the St. Johns River in Florida. The presence of Atlantic sturgeon was recorded in 34 rivers, although the number of historic spawning populations is unknown.

The fish's range in the United States has contracted slightly, and now extends from the Kennebec River in Maine to the Satilla River in Georgia. Presence is currently documented in 32 rivers, and 14 spawning populations are confirmed, while five others are suspected. Confirmed spawning populations are found in the Kennebec, Hudson, Delaware, James, Roanoke, Neuse, Tar-Pamlico, Cape Fear, Santee, Combahee, Edisto, Savannah, Ogeechee, and Altamah rivers, and spawning is suspected in the Waccamaw, PeeDee, Cooper, Ashepoo and Satilla rivers.

Atlantic sturgeon may live as long as 60 years, reach lengths up to 14 feet and weigh more than 800 pounds. They are distinguished by armor-like plates and a long, protruding snout. Sturgeon eat a wide variety of bottom-dwelling organisms such as mollusks, filtering quantities of mud along with their food. They spawn in flowing fresh or estuarine waters with hard bottoms. After hatching, juveniles may remain in the fresh or estuarine waters for several years before they swim seaward to grow to maturity and join the adult migration, which can reach many miles away from their home rivers.