Quetico Park’s Sturgeon Lake

      Imagine fishing from your canoe when suddenly you feel a tug on your line.  You begin to reel it in but it doesn’t budge so you think you may just have a snag.  But then it feels like a fish again so you reel and reel and reel and finally you catch a glimpse of something that looks like an alligator. 

     If you’re fishing in the Quetico Park then this could really happen to you.  Sturgeon Lake in the Quetico Park is aptly named for this fish that has been swimming around for over 200 million years.  The sturgeon population has declined in areas due to degrading habitat, overfishing and dam construction that has interfered with their spawning process.  Not much is known about the stugeon population in the Quetico Park but that will be changing soon.

     The Quetico Park sturgeon study has just received funding that will enable them to learn more about the sturgeon of the Quetico Park.  They hope to find out information about their migration patterns and spawning areas as well as how many there are and how well they are doing. 

     The next time you plan a trip to the Quetico consider camping in Sturgeon, Russell, Tanner, Twin or McAree Lake where you can fish for Sturgeon.  It’s catch and release fishing for them in the Quetico Park but imagine catching a prehistoric looking fish from a canoe.  I’m thinking I might want to try my luck at catching one or even better would be to see them spawning in the spring.  

A new project that will study the sturgeon population of Quetico Provincial Park is a go thanks to recently-announced provincial funding aimed at protecting “species at risk.”
The funding was granted to the Quetico Foundation as part of the Ministry of Natural Resource’s “Species at Risk Stewardship Fund,” which announced more than $4 million to 118 projects across the province in late May.