Sturgeon in Hudson was tagged in 1995

Researchers studying the shortnose sturgeon in the Hudson River caught a specimen near Staatsburg on Nov. 19 that had been tagged 26 years ago.

When caught in 1995, it was 25.5 inches long and about 15 years old, said the ecologists, who are based at Cornell University. By 2021, at about age 40, it had grown to 33.5 inches. The researchers said it was not unusual to recapture fish, but rarely a quarter-century later.

Shortnose sturgeon
A shortnose sturgeon

Shortnose sturgeon reach maturity at around seven to 10 years and then grow slowly, the Cornell scientists said. The oldest known female was 67 years old and the oldest known male was 32. It was the first species listed as endangered after the Endangered Species Act was adopted in 1973; by the 1990s, its numbers in the Hudson had grown by 400 percent, according to surveys.

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