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Tracking system attached to "Dr. Sturgeous" for monitoring purposes

  For the eighth consecutive year, the St. Lorenz Lutheran School seventh grade team has raised a fingerling Lake Sturgeon for nearly eight months in preparation to release it into the Cass River watershed.

  However, for the first time, this class will be able to track its fish as it makes its life in the Cass River and Saginaw Bay.

  The Sturgeon for Tomorrow’s “Sturgeon in the Classroom program has traditionally focused on education, giving students the opportunity to raise Lake Sturgeon and connect with the species through hands-on learning while raising the fish from early fall until its mid-spring release into the Cass River.

  The class gathered at noon Friday, May 1, to release their fish just below the rock ramp in the river. Remarks were made by Saginaw Bay Sturgeon Restoration Director Mike Kelly, Cass River Greenway Committee Chairman Bob Zehnder, and Mandy Liddle, St. Lorenz Lutheran School’s environmental education director. St. Lorenz Pastor Joel Eden gave a blessing for the fish, named 𠇍r. Sturgeous” by this year’s class. This is historic first with this Lake Sturgeon.

  In 2022, a collaboration between Michigan State University, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Great Lakes Acoustic Telemetry Observation System expanded acoustic monitoring in the Saginaw River system. This year, that effort was integrated into the Sturgeon in the Classroom program.

  For the first time in eight years of participation in the program, St. Lorenz classroom sturgeon became the patient and was implanted with an acoustic transmitter. The brief out-of-water surgery took place two weeks prior to the May 1 release, with several students there to witness the remarkable procedure. .....

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