N.B. sturgeon begin journey to restock German rivers
Last Updated: Tuesday, January 9, 2007 | 9:34 AM AT
CBC News
Baby sturgeon from the St. John River in New Brunswick are helping to repopulate German rivers where the species has all but disappeared.
Cornel Ceapa owns and operates a sturgeon hatchery at Carter's Point on the Kingston Peninsula outside Saint John.
Sturgeon are plentiful in New Brunswick rivers, and this farmed variety is helping to restock German rivers, where the species has been depleted.
(CBC)
On Tuesday, he packed 1,000 baby fish into coolers and put them on an overseas flight to Germany.
Ceapa said it makes sense to send New Brunswick fish to Europe.
"About 800 years ago, there were two species of sturgeon in the European rivers and one of them was exactly genetically identical with what we have here," he said.
This baby St. John River sturgeon, hatched on a New Brunswick farm, is destined for Europe.
(CBC)
The sturgeon being exported come from eggs taken from wild Atlantic sturgeon caught in the St. John River by fisherman Stan Whelpley, who has been catching sturgeon commercially in the river for more than 30 years.
"This is the only river on the east coast of North America that's got sturgeon in it, any amount," said Whelpley. "I mean there may be a few in some of the others but there's all kinds of sturgeon here."
Full Article
No comments:
Post a Comment