The status of the Lake Sturgeon population in the French River (*DU8, SMU4) is currently listed as unknown. Traditional knowledge and anecdotal information confirms Lake Sturgeon spawn in many rapids in Dokis First Nation's traditional waters. The French River Lake Sturgeon population has not previously been studied, with the exception of a juvenile riverine netting study that was conducted by Tim Haxton on the Lower French River in 2011, where only four Lake Sturgeon were sampled.
Two technologists from Dokis First Nation and A/OFRC biologist, Kim Tremblay, will be starting the survey Monday, May 7th and will continue until the Lake Sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) have completed their spawning run (approximately 4 weeks). This project will provide insight into the importance of the upper French River to SMU4 (Georgian Bay - Lake Huron). The goal of this project is to identify Lake Sturgeon spawning locations in the Upper French River, and to build capacity within the First Nation community.
*DU8 stands for Designatable Unit 8. A designatable unit is a biologically-based unit that may be designated based on conservation status, guided by the general policy objective of preventing irreplaceable units of biodiversity from becoming extinct or extirpated from a jurisdiction in Canada. In this case, DU8 represents the Great Lakes - Upper St. Lawrence area.; SMU4 stands for Significant Management Unit 4.
For more information, download the following PDF:
Download Dokis News Release Sturgeon 2012
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