Saving the Sturgeon (And we filmed them SPAWNING!)
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 ม.ค. 2016
- Jonathan travels to upstate New York to learn how biologists are working to save the sturgeon in the St. Lawrence river. During a dive he films an amazing spectacle that has never been recorded before--Lake Sturgeon spawning!
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Caviar is one of the most well-known delicacies in the world, an epicurean tradition dating back to the ancient Greeks and beyond.
Caviar comes from an ancient fish called a sturgeon. Sturgeon are one of the oldest families of bony fish in existence-they have been around for hundreds of millions of years.
Today, there are 27 species of Sturgeon remaining, and every one of them is endangered!
In the mid 1800s, the Caviar industry discovered the North American sturgeon. Within 20 years, they were nearly gone.
To learn more about the Sturgeon, I have teamed up with Jen Hayes, a biologist who did her PhD work with the Lake Sturgeon in the St. Lawrence river. These days, Jen and her husband David Doubilet are underwater photographers, working on a story about the St. Lawrence for National Geographic Magazine.
New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation has undertaken an ambitious project to help increase the number of sturgeon in the river.
I meet Rodger Klindt, an Aquatic Biologist with the state who is out this morning with his team.
The team’s job is part research, and part midwife. They are collecting eggs from healthy sturgeon to raise them partly in captivity.
Certain areas of the river have sturgeon present. Rodger and his team have set nets to capture both male and female mature sturgeon.
Sturgeon can live to be over 100 years old and weigh more than 200 pounds. While these might look like big fish, they get a lot bigger. But big ones these days are rare.
Since sturgeon are not mature enough to produce eggs until they are around 20 years old, most of these fish are immature and have to go back into the river.
First, a male sturgeon is taken from his tank where the team extracts sperm using a syringe. Then fish is set free.
Once they have samples of sperm from several fish, it’s time to harvest some eggs from the females.
Next the fertilized eggs go into bags to be transported in coolers to the hatchery. They will be raised there until they are about the size of your hand.
Raising fish in a hatchery helps the dwindling stocks of sturgeon in the river, but it doesn’t do anything to address their loss of spawning habitat. Fortunately, someone is working on that problem as well.
I meet Ben Lenz, an environmental scientist with the New York Power Authority. He is part of a team that installed an experimental spawning bed for sturgeon, paid for by the power authority.
We’re diving close to a dam, in extremely fast moving water. This dive can be quite tricky as the current is too strong to swim against. We’ll have to jump into the water upstream from the spawning bed and drift down until we get to it. We’ll need to get lucky to hit the spawning bed.
The New York Power Authority created this spawning bed by dumping tons and tons of crushed rocks onto a fast-moving section of water to simulate the conditions of rapids. They hoped it would encourage the sturgeon to spawn.
As we approach the beds, I start to see sturgeon everywhere. Using remote cameras towed by boats, scientists learned that sturgeon come to the beds at certain times of the year, but nobody has ever seen them actually spawning. This sturgeon is eating the algae from the rocks.
Many of the sturgeon have lampreys on them. These primitive fish are like vampires, attaching themselves to a sturgeon and living off its blood.
A glance between the rocks shows definitely evidence of spawning: sturgeon eggs! This is why they are sticky, to cling between the rocks in the current.
I can hear a strange sound. It sounds like clunking or vibrating. I suspect it’s coming from the fish, but I can’t see it. Are the fish fighting?
I fight my way upstream. Then just ahead of me, it happens! The male vibrates his body against the female. Then he releases his sperm just as the female releases her eggs! The fish are spawning!
Sperm clouds the water, fertilizing the eggs. And the eggs sink to the bottom and stick.
The sound comes from the male hitting the rocks on the bottom as his body shakes! So every time I hear that sound, I know that somewhere nearby, a pair is spawning. And I hear it a lot! The spawning grounds definitely work!
Warms the heart to see a hydro-electric company realising the cost of what they do & fixing it for the sturgeon (& other fish by the sound of it). Glad to know of such projects!!!
This is heartwarming. Glad to know that amidst all the chaos caused by humans and global warming, out there are people trying their best to fix things. Hope is not lost! 💓💓💓
“What can I do to help??” “Here hold the egg bowl” I laughed too hard just watching him hold the bowl
It was pretty gross!
Lol yes
I like the victory dance
the sturgeon is my favorite fish , after the whale shark , they are the largest freshwater fish and i like them because they are an ancient creature , one of the very oldest . they were probably around before the dinosaurs
Araipima are the largest freshwater fish
Caught one as a teenager, I had no idea what it was. Luckily I had the good sense to toss him back, unharmed.
Rum Mug the Orc Dang Johnathan loved your comment and this vid is like 2 years old. This shows that he must really pay attention to his fans.
There are sturgeons in the Suwannee River that grow to 8 ft long
Really?? Wow!
I don’t know why, but I love this video so much! I think I’ve watched it about fourteen times now (yes I’ve been counting lol), and I’m still not bored! It might be because it restores my faith in humanity, like Jonathan says at the end. I know that if people put their minds to it, they can fix what they’ve broken. That’s why my TH-cam name is Save Our Seas. People can do that. Thanks for this awesome video, Jonathan!
We can fix what was broken in a decade or maybe 2. Take the defense budgets of all big nations and say 25 percent goes to environment. 10 years maybe 20 all GOOD
The victory dance is cute 😊
Sturgeons are long-lived, late-maturing fishes with distinctive characteristics, such as a heterocercal caudal fin similar to that of sharks, and an elongated spindle-like body that is smooth-skinned, scaleless and armored with 5 lateral rows of bony plates called scutes. Several species can grow quite large, typically ranging 7-12 feet (2-3½ m) in length. The largest sturgeon on record was a Beluga female captured in the Volga estuary in 1827, weighing 1,571 kg (3,463 lb) and 7.2 m (24 ft) long.
Toy Forest you wrote a lot 🤯
Waw..intresting info
Another fun fact. Sturgeon typically take a out 20 years to reach the 6ft length. So based on that, that fish was 120+ years old at the time!
So cool you got to catch sturgeon spawning there. It’s awesome when people can come together and make a difference like that for animals and you proved it’s working!
Great work... They are so charming
Sturgeon are the biggest reason I'm going into my field of study. I don't what it is about them, but ever since I discovered they were a thing, I have loved them so deeply it hurts. They fill me with so much joy. 10000000/ 10 best fish ever. Acipenseriformes fans of the world unite!
sturgeons are magnificent fish
WOW!
it is awesome to see all the work you are doing to help replenish these fish!
Some of them get ~8 feet long and over ton.....ive seen a 7.2 one in a biologist Aquarium, absolutely majestic and calm creatures
I just had a brief encounter with one this past week in the Niagara River. It was around 6ft long. The current was really strong and we just couldn’t keep up with it.
I like the introductions when he says " I am Jonathan Bird, welcome to my world"🤣
He says Hi, I am Jonathan Bird and welcome to my world😊😊
Ive seen one in my life, coolest thing by far ive ever reeled in, i felt bad even catching it but it was released perfectly i need to start carrying a book with me to log fish like these
ZI ABSOLUTRLY LOVE THIS FISH THE STERGEON..AND YHE WHALE SHARK TOO.
Before I had this channel I've watched a lot and I finally remembered what your channel is it brought my love for your channel back
Beautiful
This is the channle that made me get scuba certified
Sweet!
are
Asla
Thank you
L
They've got loads of sturgeon in my local inland dive sites and apparently an albino! Fantastic footage Jonathan.
I can't wait for their reaction when they realise they were adopted
You were adopted either.
sturgeons are awesome! in the shedd aquarium my sister and i were able to touch sturgeons in a tank!!! the water was cold. the sturgeon was very slimy tho.
Minatoes Arisatonsil interesting I thought they were boney and they look like they have a hard shell
This is Fantastic , I hope they create many more of this site's . As Always a great video !
Found your channel looking for Blue Heron Bridge footage and have been binging your wonderful video's all day since. Thanks so much. okay. break's over. got to check out the alewife run.
Great one! Love it.
At the same time, they figured out a way to collect caviar without harming the fish, meaning that it's renewable too!
Caviar companies have known this forever actually. Unfortunately they have no interest in actually taking the time (or money) to use this technique and let the fish swim off. For them it is much cheaper to just slaughter them. :(
They still harm the fish it cant reproduce
Lp
The rich will always Rape the land.
Love you guys! 💙🐟🐬🐡🐳🐠🐋
Great video. Admire their dedications....
So informative. I had no idea it takes twenty years for sturgeon to reach maturity!
wow this channel makes my day watching old and new videos every day
Awesome video. Amazing work.
7:03 ooh babey! Lol 😂
sturgeon is a fun fish to catch, they grow so big.
just let it out again
Or, just don't catch it in the first place. Leave the poor fish alone and do something useful.
+Katie its ok animals eat pray alive but its wrong when We catch Them and let Them out again?
steen275 Yes, because they're doing it to survive, people are doing it for fun.
Leave the Fish alone!!!!!!!!!!
At first I thought the caviar were chocolate..lol
Thank you for sharing
Thanks for watching!
Feels awesome and do watch
Twentieth time watching this! I’m still not bored of it!
This is so awesome. I have designed some aquaculture facilities and a colleague I worked with was involved with sturgeon facilities. One was on the same property as a building I designed. Those are some prehistoric looking fish. The problem with getting caviar is it usually results in the death of the female when collected the traditional way. I know some work has been done to collect the eggs without killing the fish but I have been out of that loop a few years
Sturgeon spawning actually has been recorded and televised in the 90s (26 years ago) - it was THE first PBS televised one-hour documentary about all 7 species of Sturgeon and it contains actual spawning footage on the Wolfe River. There's also a clip with comedian Bill Murray. It's not only a historic documentary, it's timeless - Sturgeon: Ancient Survivors - distributed by Earthwave Society, narrated by James Drury (of The Virginian fame), and it has been available for viewing on TH-cam for many years, although the video quality is not of the caliber of this video, but that's expected of a 26-year-old BetaSP tape, so kudos to this production for the excellent video quality.
I'll have to check that one out!
Little guys, I didn't know they had such a small species of Sturgeon in the U.S. The White,Black and Green Sturgeons we have in the West Coast, at the largest can grow 20 feet long and close to a ton.
Whoa!
Bro he said this was in Canada not US
this is so nice
Did a drift dive miles above niagra falls in the niagra river and did see a sturgeon..The river is arpund 20 feet deep and very clear..The current is not too stiff ..
Cool
Cool video! Makes me think of the Primus song “The Ol’ Diamondback Sturgeon”.
There's sturgeon close to where I live. I love them.
nice...
i love it
I love your videos and i want to go scuba diving with you
Anyone else think Sturgeon are cute? Because I think they are :3
+Andy F. Yeah i see where you are coming form
Actually Indian people are the one who are polutting the world and they don't care about animals.......yeah really I have visited india and they are very greedy for money because of their importance for property, world is being polluted and many species are dying in current time....
ME TOOO 💕
whats even cuter than adult sturgeon? baby sturgeon!!!!
@@sushilkm1 Sturgeon aren't from India...it's not only Indian..Human have to be responsible...not only indians
St Lawrence River whooooooo!!!!!!! Massena New York!
I Love ur show,so much its good to see undewater... i have pet Fish when i'was a kid.they loves me so much... Good joB! Mr. Bird .. i Contenue watching tell i get OLD..='V'=
Nice fish
Theres some sturgeon in lake winnipeg too, but they look spinier and more bony
Wow. I saw a lot of ur videos, and this one is one of the greatest!
Respect for ur work, u give many people a nice view about the real waterworld.
:)
Try to dive with a white sturgeon.
I actually had a baby one as a pet when I was a kid. Believe it on not, I bought it at the Walmart pet fish dept. It was the only one in the take and I don't know how it got there. I think it was mistakenly shipped to the store. The Walmart employee thought it was an algae eater. I study fish and knew that it was a sturgeon. The Walmart employee was clueless.
Wow how big was it?
Hahahaha oh yes
My son studys about the ocean and knows a lot already and is also trying to save the ocean too
i caught one of this in the midwest and they put a very good fight.
Hopefully, the sturgeons will be saved completely from extinction!
it was so useful
yay a new video
Appreciate💕💕
Ggyhhh
Still my fav video of all time
I was eating when the sperm scene showed up 😖
Haahhaaahha😂
I can imagine you started chewing slower. Kind of like what Stewie did on Family Guy when Peter tells the family that not all the bottles in the fridge are milk but in fact horse sperm. He stops eating for a brief moment then as he processes the fact that he just poured horse sperm on his cereal. Then continues to eat, but at a much slower pace.
😂😂
Ngl it looks like fish being milked
Good!
the river current looks very strong
Yes, it was a challenge!
Amaiging fish
Nice video dude
it's cool
It's nice
my first love is Scuba Diving. Learn, Love Coral Reef... Learn, Love Scuba Dive... Scuba Dive pa More... con-con villar...
Great
*STUUURGEON*
Yuck, Caviar D:
Amazing video, it's so cool how the sturgeon can adapt to the new conditions as well as they do! (And that their wannabe fish humans help them ^-^)
amazing films!
Nice video Johnathan I hope that they can still remain in blue world 😍😘
Thanks Hohnathan :D
Sorry 😭
they could have used a solar panel of many meters so it would a great advantage to the sturgeon a or use wind mell if the area is windy or anywhere windy
One more video by the Blue World, educating me with the knowledge about the fish surviving in the artificial bed under the river.
Your videos are terrific
It's sad to know that people almost wiped out such cool animal all those years ago just because they thought of them as a pest, But i'm relived and very happy that people these days are doing whatever they can to bring more of them back again.
"It's sad to know that people almost wiped out such cool animal all those years ago just because they thought of them as a pest..."
No, the near extinction came as a result of over-harvesting them for caviar. No longer seen as pests, but as money-makers.
the only caviar I had was in a BEA flight from Libya to Rome, nice stuff :)
Fantastic video! Sturgeon are amazing fish.
grump grump grump
All I visited video are year 😂 but I njoy watching it
This is gonna help me A lit with my robotics project!
I wish the team well, haven’t heard much positive news on sturgeon as of late, and with the recent extinction of the yangzte paddlefish making things seem all the more darker, i know its been nearly a decade but i hope they’ve made some good progress in not only helping the sturgeon populations rebound but also have more spawning habitat, it would be such a blessing to see these majestic animals be as numerous as they were just a few centuries ago.
We were just filming at the Tennessee aquarium where they have a big sturgeon program and they are making really good progress with restoration of the species.
@@BlueWorldTV that is some great news! I wish them great success on their program
Avid fan here. 🙌
Is your show available in south africa?
On TH-cam!
Best Video Ever
We live along the Mississippi river and my dad goes fishing in our boat and he catches sturgeon a lot and releases them
I think he said that they are long nose sturgeon
I'm glad he lets them go!
@@BlueWorldTV me to the look like really pretty fish
THANK YOU!
it's not that hard to be articulate for once, is it?
come catch me. NOW. just kidding. YOU ARE THE STURGEON AND YOU ARE DYING ha ha
its funny because i think you're dying and i'm right ha ha ha ha haha
sturgeon
your cringe
Sturgeon stories of alien abduction
If this is big to you try looking at the Beluga sturgeon
Wow. Your Hardworks really Pay-off. They're really cool.
13:01 the sturgeon has a half tail
To think they have been around that long then are almost all wiped out by man smh, man is very powerful and need to do what we can to make sure these things are around for that much longer
We've got 4 sturgeons in our pond. They are always hungry...
Lampreys can be also found in salmonoid species not just sturgeons. And caviar can be also found in female flying fish not just female sturgoens.🐟🐟🐠🐠☿☿☿☿
Good
And now sturgeons are still around today it was known as a Living Fossil
Ist das ein Fisch, Namens "Stör" 👍✌️💖
In der Tat