Patrick Durkin: Show folks a sturgeon, they’ll tell you a story

First, they made the morning headlines April 22 by not landing on the nation’s endangered species list (ESL). The Center for Biological Diversity claims lake sturgeon are “imperiled,” and had petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to put them on the ESL even though sturgeon doing well in Wisconsin and elsewhere.
Hours later, the prehistoric fish made more headlines when news broke of a Wisconsin-based lake sturgeon turning up in a research net 651 miles from home on the Mississippi River between Illinois and Missouri. In other words, just another day in the media spotlight that shines often on Wisconsin’s “dinosaur fish,” our version of charismatic megafauna.