Rare Catch, Big Data: Maryland Biologists Track Endangered Sturgeon In Chesapeake Bay

FEDERALSBURG, Md. — Maryland fisheries biologists have captured and released the largest female Atlantic sturgeon documented in a decade-long monitoring effort on Marshyhope Creek, a rare find for an endangered species once thought nearly gone from the Chesapeake Bay.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources announced Nov. 21 that the fish, nicknamed “Chessie,” was caught this fall during the agency’s Atlantic sturgeon gillnetting survey. Chessie measured just under 7 feet 10 inches and weighed more than 200 pounds, making her the largest female recorded in the survey’s history.

Biologists implanted Chessie with a passive integrated transponder tag, an acoustic transmitter and an external T-bar tag before returning her to the water. The tags will allow scientists in Maryland and along the East Coast to track her movements in Marshyhope Creek, the Nanticoke River, the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean as part of a coastwide acoustic receiver network.

Atlantic sturgeon, a long-lived, anadromous species once harvested heavily in the Bay, declined sharply in the 20th century because of overfishing, habitat loss and poor water quality. The Chesapeake Bay population was listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act in 2012, and Maryland’s sturgeon fishery has been closed since 1996.

Since 2014, DNR and its research partners have tagged and released 41 mature adult Atlantic sturgeon in Marshyhope Creek, a major tributary of the Nanticoke River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Based on repeated captures of ripe males and females with mature eggs, scientists consider spawning in the Nanticoke watershed “highly likely” and view the area as a critical piece of the species’ recovery in the Bay.

State officials say data from Chessie and other tagged fish will help identify migration routes, spawning habitat and seasonal staging areas needed to guide ongoing conservation work. All research activities are conducted under National Marine Fisheries Service Permit No. 20314.

More information on Maryland’s Atlantic sturgeon research and conservation efforts is available on the Department of Natural Resources website.