[Liz] The event kicked off with speakers including Lucas County Commissioner Carol Contrada who set the scene.
- Congratulations to all of you, all the people and all the children who came out here for this really exciting event. And welcome to the real Jurassic Park.
[Liz] Hundreds celebrated the release, even a human Sturgeon family.
- I'm a Sturgeon, my name is Sturgeon, family name is Sturgeon, we're from upper Sandusky, Ohio and this is our daughter so we have three Sturgeons
- A Hamer.
[Woman] And a non.
- And one that married a Sturgeon.
[Liz] They traveled an hour to release a few Sturgeon in memory of loved ones.
- When we saw it on Facebook, you know, to be a part of this for us of course is special and I'm glad to see 'em doing this up here.
[Liz] Children named and released their own baby Sturgeon. Fans wore Sturgeons t-shirts and Seymour the Sturgeon mascot even made an appearance. The number of Sturgeon fans shocked Toledo Zoo Director of Conservation and Research, Kent Bekker.
- I am very surprised to see the amount of people here. I had no idea whether we were talkin' about a dozen people or hundreds of people.
[Liz] The release has been in the works for over a decade but federal funding from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service two years ago got the ball rolling. And this Sturgeon release isn't about introducing a new species to Lake Erie, it's about reviving a population driven almost to extinction by commercial fishermen in the early 1900's.
- Lake Sturgeon within Lake Erie originally had 19 reproducing populations but Lake Erie is down to about two populations now.
[Liz] The fish is now an endangered species. Research fishery biologist Christopher Vandergroot says the decline of Sturgeon coincided with settlement of the area.
- A lot of commercial fisheries were developed and Lake Sturgeon would get in their gear and the Lake Sturgeon would just tear up and rip their fishing nets and so they were valued really low. They would actually kill the fish, they would let them dry up on the beaches and they would use them as fuel for their vessels. They started developing markets for them shortly thereafter and once they developed a market for these fish they were over exploited very, very quickly.
[Liz] The restocking effort mirrors similar already successful effort in the Detroit River. But the Maumee River program will also serve as an experiment. Some of the fish come from a Toledo Zoo facility using Maumee River water and the rest are from hatchery in Wisconsin.
- Really an experimental design is to see what method works best? Or, you know, do we need to go through the effort of raising fish here locally to establish the population?
[Liz] And even though it's not exactly clear what role the Sturgeon will fill it's a big step for the Maumee River.
- Reintroducing Lake Sturgeon just brings back a complete ecosystem and that's kind of the drive behind the restoration efforts here today.
[Liz] The juvenile Sturgeon released in the river are about six inches long now but over the next 15 to 20 years they could grow up to be 10 feet long and weigh 200 pounds. And the plan is for the Sturgeon population to grow over time.
- So, over the next 10 to 20 years the partnership as a whole anticipates releasing 3,000 fish annually.
[Liz] Bekker says the zoo plans to host a release event every year for the prehistoric fish.
- It's very nice to see that people are not only excited about the Sturgeon and the recovery of Sturgeon in the Maumee River but I think it's a testament to the river itself and how tied to that people are.