Environmentalists threaten to sue N.J., Del. if they don’t take action to protect Atlantic sturgeon from bycatch

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Atlantic sturgeon have been around for 70 million years — predating the dinosaurs. These monumental fish with shark-like fins even survived the Chicxulub asteroid, which caused the great extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous Period.

But the species that once thrived in the Philadelphia region’s waterways has become endangered, threatened by habitat loss, dams, poor water quality and vessel strikes. In the Delaware River, only about 250 estimated sturgeon remain, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Sturgeon are also caught in fishing nets and injured by boats during the commercial fishing of other types of fish such as striped bass and summer flounder.

The Delaware Riverkeeper Network argues the region isn’t doing enough to protect the Atlantic sturgeon. The nonprofit is threatening to sue Delaware, New Jersey and New York under the Endangered Species Act for allegedly allowing the commercial fishing industry to kill the Atlantic sturgeon as bycatch.

“The accidental trapping and harm to the Atlantic Sturgeon could be taking place at numbers so significant that it is, in fact, placing in jeopardy the continuation of the Atlantic sturgeon population of the Delaware River,” said the organization’s Maya Van Rossum, “and may be a reason, or the reason, why ultimately the Atlantic sturgeon go extinct and are lost forever from the Earth, and for both present and future generations.”