Great Lakes Aquarium raises sturgeon for St. Louis River release

Great Lakes Aquarium launched a project to rear lake sturgeon from egg and larval stages to fingerlings for release into the St. Louis River, turning part of its operation into a restoration tool for one of the Northland’s most watched waterways. The plan also includes a hatchery trailer and an exhibit that explains the species’ return and its cultural significance to Indigenous peoples.

The work is backed by a 2025 Minnesota legacy, arts and cultural heritage grant and carried out with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Fond du Lac Resource Management and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The Lake Superior Center Authority’s 2025 annual report said the aquarium was partnering with those agencies and the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa to support stocking efforts.

The stakes are high because lake sturgeon do not rebound quickly. Fond du Lac Resource Management says hydroelectric construction on the St. Louis River in the early 1900s reduced the remaining upper-river population near the Fond du Lac Reservation. The 1854 Treaty Authority says the St. Louis River once held a large, self-sustaining lake sturgeon population and is now in the early stages of rebuilding a naturally reproducing one.

There is also a clear record of how long the recovery has taken. St. Louis River Sturgeon Watch says tribal biologists found four young sturgeon below the Fond du Lac dam in 2011, the first evidence of sturgeon reproduction in many decades. A 2024 support document says the Fond du Lac Band has led the upper St. Louis River stocking initiative for more than two decades, and the aquarium said a successful rearing and stocking program can help produce a self-sustaining population.

The St. Louis River estuary gives the project its local weight. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources describes the estuary as the confluence of the St. Louis River with Lake Superior, covering about 12,000 acres. A 2024 presentation listed 43 species of native fish, 159 species of birds and 43 species of greatest conservation need there, figures that underscore why restoration in the river reaches far beyond a single species.

For Duluth and St. Louis County, the aquarium’s role is no longer just about showing visitors what lives in the water. It is helping produce the fish that restoration partners want back in the river, tying public education to the long work of rebuilding the St. Louis River ecosystem.