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May 2, 2002Seeking sturgeon and 'shrooms- Warm weather means spawning creatures fill Black Lake; tours to offer sneak peek, fungus funBy DAN SANDERSONRecord-Eagle staff writer CHEBOYGAN - Tourists and residents have a chance to hunt all the mushrooms they want as well as get a peek at the majestic Black Lake sturgeon as they spawn. The Cheboygan Area Tourist Bureau and the group Sturgeon For Tomorrow have teamed up for a mushroom hunt and guided sturgeon viewing tours this weekend. The mushroom hunt will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. Registration will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday and 7 to 9 a.m. Saturday at the Cheboygan Area Chamber of Commerce. Despite recent chilly weather, Beverly King, director of the tourist bureau, said 78 people from throughout the state and Midwest are already registered for the mushroom hunt and more are expected to register on site. Brenda Archambo, president of Sturgeon For Tomorrow, said the two guided sturgeon tours on the Black River are already booked for Sunday, but people can schedule other tours as the weather warms up. "Once the sturgeon are in the river they'll be there for a while so there will be ample opportunity to see them," Archambo said. For the past three years Sturgeon For Tomorrow, in conjunction with the Department of Natural Resources, has scheduled a sturgeon-guarding program along the river because the fish are oblivious to humans and are susceptible to illegal harvest. Volunteers watch the river around the clock from late April through the month of May. "It's unconscionable that someone would illegally take the sturgeon while they are in the river but it does happen," Archambo said. Sturgeon can live as long as 150 years and grow as long as eight feet, but only spawn every five to seven years. DNR surveys indicate that 1,599 sturgeon were in Black Lake in 1979. A 1997 survey showed the adult population at 549, a decline of 66 percent. Poaching is the main factor for the drop. DNR fish biologists are scheduled to do a survey of the adult sturgeon population in Black Lake this July and will update the study every five years. Kregg Smith, a fish biologist from Central Michigan University, will tag and release 15 sturgeon that have been reared at the Wolf Lake Fish Hatchery near Kalamazoo for the past year. That will allow tracking of the fish's migratory patterns. "Our hopes are that they will lead to a nursing area where lake sturgeon are in the wild, because we know little about the early stages of lake sturgeon," Archambo said. For more information on the river-guarding program or to schedule a tour, contact Sturgeon For Tomorrow at www.sturgeonfortomorrow.org. |
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