Government funds effort to save Nechako watershed white sturgeon

The B.C. government has given a $1.5-million grant to conservation efforts in the Nechako watershed to help endangered white sturgeon.

"We don't want to lose them. Once you lose them, they're gone," Environment Minister Barry Penner said in an interview Sunday afternoon after announcing the grant.

He said the funding will go towards recovery projects for the species.

The money will go to the Freshwater Fisheries Society of B.C., which will collaborate with the Nechako White Sturgeon Recovery Initiative.

The initative includes federal and provincial biologists, first nations and environmental groups.

There are less than 400 adult white sturgeon estimated to be in the Nechako, said Penner, down from about 8,000 historically.

The numbers have continued to decline, despite a fishing ban imposed eight years ago, said Penner.

Most of the Nechako's 400 white sturgeon are more than 40 years old, he said, and it does not appear that any new spawn are surviving.

"Unlike salmon, which die after they spawn, the sturgeon can survive and live to spawn again," said Penner.

Nechako white sturgeon females do not spawn until they are 30 to 40 years old, said Penner, and then only every five to 10 years.

The white sturgeon is B.C.'s largest freshwater fish, growing up to six metres long and weighing up to 600 kilograms.

They can live to be more than 100 years old. The species is found in four major river systems, including the Fraser, Nechako, Columbia and Kootenay rivers.