-- U.S. bans sturgeon fishing along Atlantic coast --
BOSTON, April 16 (Reuters) - The National Marine Fisheries
Service said on Friday it will ban fishing for sturgeon in
federal waters along the Atlantic coast.
The ban begins May 27 and will remain in effect from Maine
to Florida until sturgeon stocks recover, the Fisheries Service
said. Every east coast state has had its own ban on sturgeon
since 1998.
Mature sturgeon live in the ocean and head up coastal
rivers to breed. So few sturgeon remain in East Coast waters
that marine biologists do not have a reliable population
estimate.
New York's Hudson River, where the largest population
remains, is believed to be home to fewer than 5,000 juvenile
sturgeon, down from roughly 20,000 in the 1970s, the Fisheries
Service said.
There is no longer a commercial sturgeon fishery on the
East Coast, the Fisheries Service said. Until the early 1990s,
however, some 200,000 pounds of Atlantic sturgeon a year were
landed along the East Coast.
Atlantic sturgeon can be eight feet (2.4 meters) long and
weigh 600 pounds (272 kilograms). Because it takes 15 years for
female sturgeon to reach breeding age, it could take up to 40
years before populations reach a fishable level, the Fisheries
Service said.
REUTERS
Source RTR - Reuters News Service
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