A baby white sturgeon from the Fraser River.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Fraser River Sturgeon Conservation Society

The white surgeon is a species of ginormous fish in the Fraser River, and they haven’t changed much in millions of years but like many other species they are under threat.

The Fraser River Sturgeon Conservation Society is a non-profit dedicated to monitoring and conserving white sturgeon.

Sarah Schreier is the executive director of the society and she said there is no other species like the white sturgeon.

“It's still North America's largest freshwater fish, it's essentially a dinosaur, so it's unchanged for about 65 million years,” she said. “It touches so many communities all throughout the Fraser watershed, it has significant importance for First Nations communities as well as the local economies. People come from everywhere in the world just for the chance to see one of these animals.”

White sturgeon can weigh more than 600 kg and live more than 200 years. Schreier said the fish played a key role in B.C. history.

Explorer Simon Fraser, the river’s namesake, wrote a diary entry about sharing some white sturgeon with First Nations along the river.

“He references having an opportunity to engage with Indigenous peoples and they shared sturgeon with him. There's so much history,” she said.

The problems started for this species in the 1890s and worsened through the 1920s when settlers fished millions of pounds of sturgeon out of the river which decimated the population in a way it hasn’t fully recovered from.

“It was essentially like clear-cutting an old-growth forest,” she said. “You've got a long way to go before you're going to sort of get past the halo effect of that significant time period where they were harvesting them.”

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Now, the fish are a protected species but the population is still declining due to how people have altered the landscape.

“The good news is that it appears the decline is slowing,” she said.

She said there are roughly 51,000 fish in the 200 km stretch of the Fraser River the society monitors, but more important than a single statistic is the overall trend.

A white sturgeon so large three people are required to measure its circumference.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Fraser River Sturgeon Conservation Society

“We need to see the trend change and see that the animals have a much more upward type trend, so that's really where our focus is,” she said.

The society publishes their findings on their website, including a version that is digestible for the non-biologist. People can also adopt a sturgeon and track their fish through the society’s site.

She said the society hopes the population will turn around if conservation efforts can continue. A key component of conservation is, of course, money. In June the society raised $110,000 to continue monitoring and researching sturgeon in the Fraser River.

“Being able to raise these funds is absolutely critical,” she said. “It keeps the work going.”

Schreier even addressed the rumours that there could be white sturgeon in Okanagan Lake.

“They've been seen in Stave Lake, Pitt Lake, up the Pitt River, they can travel. So it's entirely possible,” she said. “I'd love to get someone to send me photos or send me anything, because that helps tell the story.”

She said the society is still monitoring how the current flooding will affect the sturgeon.

“I just really want to express our gratitude to all of our volunteers and the communities we work with. They volunteer countless hours to help us and many of them are part of First Nations communities,” she said.

Click here to learn more about the society and the Fraser River’s white sturgeon.

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