Sauger restoration efforts proving successful in Allegheny River

In 2018, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation completed a five-year stocking program to reintroduce sauger into the Allegheny River.

Since the program began in 2014, DEC stocked over 17,000 sauger fingerlings and 700,000 sauger fry in the Allegheny River and Reservoir with hopes of establishing a self-sustaining population.

Follow-up surveys by DEC Region 9 fisheries staff have shown good survival and exceptional growth of stocked sauger – sauger from the first year of stocking are now reaching over 20 inches, an impressive size for sauger anywhere in the country, the DEC said in a news release.

DEC plans to extend the stocking program for another five years to better the chances of creating a wild sauger population in New York State.

For more on the DEC’s sauger management program, click here.

— New York State Department of Environmental Conservation