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After a summer of thrilling sightings near the Trail shoreline, the city鈥檚 now-famous sturgeon appears to be in trouble, and the situation has sparked action from multiple agencies.

On Monday, Aug. 25, a passerby sent the Trail Times photos showing the sturgeon with rope 鈥� and what appears to be a fishing float 鈥� tightly wrapped around its body. The images show clear signs of obstruction and possible distress.

While the presence of this ancient fish near town has captivated many locals all summer, this incident serves as a sobering reminder of the fragility of the species, and the fine line between awe and alarm.

Sgt. Ben Beetlestone of the Conservation Officer Service (West Kootenay Zone) responded promptly to a Trail Times inquiry, advising that concerns about sturgeon in the Columbia River fall under the jurisdiction of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO).

The Times has since contacted the DFO鈥檚 Observe, Record, Report line and a file has been opened.

Beetlestone noted that the Conservation Officer Service has not received any other calls about this particular sturgeon, adding that such cases would also be referred to DFO's observe, record, report line at 1.800.465.4336.

The Trail Times will continue to follow this story and provide updates as they become available.

Sturgeon under threat

White sturgeon have swum in the Columbia Basin for thousands of years.

As the largest freshwater fish in Canada, these bottom-dwelling giants can live over a century and grow longer than three metres.

But their numbers have plummeted in recent decades due to habitat loss, disrupted river flows, and poor recruitment, the term used when not enough juveniles survive to adulthood.

In 2003, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada officially declared the Upper Columbia white sturgeon population 鈥渁t risk.鈥�

That status became law in 2006 when the species was listed under the federal Species at Risk Act.

Eighteen years later, the situation remains dire. A 2024 federal action plan from Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) reports that the Upper Columbia population is still critically endangered due to continued recruitment failure.

Despite the grim outlook, there have been glimmers of hope.

Over the past two decades, a coordinated recovery strategy 鈥� involving conservation aquaculture, habitat restoration, Indigenous leadership, and public engagement 鈥� has helped stabilize the population.

One of the cornerstones of this recovery has been the use of hatcheries to raise larvae collected from the wild before releasing them back into the Columbia system.

According to BC Hydro鈥檚 2024 monitoring report, there are now more than 5,000 hatchery-origin sturgeon in the river, and about 1,000 wild adults remaining in the Canadian stretch of the Upper Columbia.

A 2024 peer-reviewed study found that hatchery cohorts from 2014 to 2020 retained genetic diversity levels on par with the remaining wild population, largely to the shift toward collecting larvae directly from natural spawning events.

鈥淭his approach has been critical,鈥� researchers wrote. 鈥淚t should be viewed as a model for other species recovery efforts.鈥�

Meanwhile, critical habitat protection is advancing.

A May 2024 DFO advisory identified the Kinnaird Reach near Castlegar as essential for spawning and rearing, and recommends expanding protective measures there.

Substrate enhancement projects 鈥� including work at the Arrow Lakes Generating Station 鈥� are also showing signs of success, with spawning reportedly observed in summer 2023.

Community engagement remains key. Since 2007, more than 60,000 young sturgeon have been released into the Arrow Lakes Reservoir through public release events, many organized by the Okanagan Nation Alliance, BC Hydro, and the Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program.

But as the incident in Trail makes painfully clear, even one sturgeon entangled in debris is one too many 鈥� especially when every adult counts in the fight to bring the species back from the brink.

This fish, so visible and admired along the shoreline this summer, isn鈥檛 just a local curiosity.

It鈥檚 a symbol of one of B.C.鈥檚 most urgent conservation stories.

Anyone who spots the sturgeon or has information is encouraged to report to RAPP at 1-877-952-7277 or online at rapp.bc.ca.