For millions of years, an armored behemoth has navigated its long nose through North American waterways. The lake sturgeon, which can reach six feet long and live to be 150 years old, are thought to be the oldest fish species in the Great Lakes ecosystem.
“The times that I've been able to go out into the field and handle these fish, it is just amazing,” says Amy Welsh, a conservation geneticist at West Virginia University. “They're like gentle giants. You'll bring them up and they're just super low key and laid back.” The only reason Welsh is reaching out to hold sturgeon is because tribal bands, biologists and other conservationists are bringing the ancient swimmers back to the rivers and lakes they used to inhabit — and the process is nearly as slow and long-lived as the fish themselves.
