(Endangered) Species battles back on Penobscot (shortnose sturgeon, Maine)

[jpak]

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=226571&ac=PHnws

BANGOR — University of Maine researchers are turning to sonar as they try to estimate the burgeoning population of shortnose sturgeon spending the winter in the murky bottom of the Penobscot River.

Once abundant in rivers from Florida to the St. John in Canada, the mysterious and reclusive shortnose sturgeon is under federal protection as an endangered species. It was only 2 years ago that researchers documented the first populations in the Penobscot in nearly three decades.

Sonar images reveal dozens of shortnose sturgeon, identifiable as long white splotches, crowded together along the bottom of the 20-foot-deep river.

"When people have done this and gotten good video, they say they look like cordwood just stacked one on top of another," said Gayle Zydlewski, a professor at the university's School of Marine Sciences.

Analysts hope to use the information to get an idea of how many of the fish are wintering in the Penobscot.

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