The Lake Champlain Basin Program is hosting “Lake Sturgeon Return!” on Thursday, March 3, 2016 at the LCBP office in Grand Isle.

The LCBP will host guest speaker Chet MacKenzie, Vermont Fish and Wildlife Fisheries Program Manager. MacKenzie will share the life cycle of the sturgeon, photos and images of lake sturgeon, and preliminary results of Vermont’s sturgeon tagging program.

The lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens), is one of about 25 species of sturgeon, an ancient bottom feeder with a partly cartilaginous skeleton. Lake sturgeons can grow to more than seven feet long and weigh over 240 pounds. Lake sturgeon are found in areas that were linked by the large lakes that formed as the glaciers retreated from North America at the end of the last ice age, including the Mississippi River drainage, the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River and Detroit Rivers, The Hudson River and Lake Champlain.

This free public program begins at 6:30 pm in the Lake Champlain Basin Program Office and Vermont Fish and Wildlife Building, 54 West Shore Road, Grand Isle, Vermont, located just north of the Grand Isle ferry entrance. Homemade desserts will be served. For further information, contact the Lake Champlain Basin Program at the LCBP at (802) 372-3213.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons user Fungus Guy.