Federal govt protects sturgeon in Sacramento River
Associated Press
Fresno Bee
06/02/2010
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- New federal regulations will soon prohibit catching, killing or harming the rare caviar-producing North American green sturgeon.
The sturgeon are listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. They are found from Alaska to California, but they reproduce only in the Sacramento River.
The new protections were published Wednesday in the Federal Register.
The National Marine Fisheries Service says the species has survived nearly unchanged for 200 million years. But its population has dwindled the last 25 years largely because of loss of spawning habitat.
