By Bruce Ross, Executive Director [email]bross@wisducks.org[/email]

This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s February 2024 Newsletter edition.

There was an article this week in the Wisconsin Outdoor News about a new threat to sturgeon spearing in the Winnebago chain that is NOT related to the lack of ice this year.

I’ve never dropped a spear on a lake sturgeon, nor do I feel the call to do so.  But I read this story in the Wisconsin Outdoor News with a hunter’s interest.

The passion for Winnebago lake sturgeon spearing has yielded volunteer energy, a significant economic impact, and funding for scientific study of this population, which, as a result, may be the healthiest in the nation. Paul Smith wrote a great story on sturgeon spearing last year, if you don’t have personal knowledge of this activity.

Now it seems this strong, well-managed fish population may be coming onto the endangered species act (ESA) listing, which would foreclose the annual spearing season, regardless of the health of the Winnebago fish population. A petition to the USFWS by the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental advocacy group, was started to place all sturgeon on the ESA.

I don’t know – there may be legitimate reasons to consider some sturgeon populations for endangered species protection.  But the Lake Winnebago population is not one of those populations. It’s arguably the best-managed, healthiest population of sturgeon in the world. Unfortunately, this issue may get caught up in federal bureaucracy and anti-consumption fervor, making a one-size fits-all ban a reality… science and actual conditions be damned.

I have offered in previous articles that WWA’s pursuit of a sustainable and ethical hunt for sandhill cranes may warrant the support of hunters everywhere whether they intend to hunt SHC in Wisconsin or not.  If a hunt for a strong, growing population of game birds, scientifically and successfully managed under federal migratory regulations cannot not be established in a state with a constitutional right to hunt then what’s the next anti-hunting shoe to drop? The beautiful and storied wood duck, the turkey, whitetail deer?  The sturgeon example is a case in point of just how slippery that slope can get.

Hunters and fishermen everywhere – regardless of your interest in sturgeon – should weigh in with their federal legislators to require that science-based management of game species be respected in the face of emotionally-driven efforts to “protect” such species from the very people who’ve helped made their success a reality.