This story was originally produced by the Keene Sentinel. NHPR is republishing it in partnership with the Granite State News Collaborative.
Scientists recently found evidence that a federally endangered fish is living in the part of the Connecticut River that runs along local communities. Their findings included DNA drawn from a water sample in Westmoreland.
“Given that this species is endangered, every effort to safeguard its habitat and prevent further declines is vital for biodiversity and ecosystem health,” James Garner said in an email. He is one of two lead scientists on the project and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
The shortnose sturgeon, a long, skinny fish with subtle ridges along its spine, has been considered endangered since 1967, only one year after the federal government implemented the endangered species list to keep track of those at risk of becoming extinct. Previously, the fish was thought to live only as far north in the Connecticut River as Turners Falls, Mass.
The recent discovery upstream could help government agencies implement pre-existing protections farther north, according to Garner and Kate Buckman, the other lead scientist on the project and the river steward for New Hampshire with the Connecticut River Conservancy.
The pair became interested in the shortnose sturgeon separately and joined forces early this year to figure out if the fish, which inhabits rivers and coastal waters along the East Coast as far south as Florida and as far north as Canada, was indeed absent in this part of the Connecticut.
Dams, habitat degradation and commercial fishing were all factors that led the local shortnose sturgeon population to shrink, the Connecticut River Conservancy said in a news release about the discovery.
In June, Buckman and Garner began trying to trace the fish by collecting water samples from the bottom of the river at sites between Turners Falls, Mass., and Walpole, N.H. They explained that they took samples from the bottom since this is where the shortnose sturgeon lives.
Scientists also considered where there had been anecdotal sightings of the sturgeon when selecting survey spots, according to Julian Burgoff. He is a volunteer on the project who is working on a master’s in UMass Amherst’s Environmental Conservation Department. These anecdotes were significant to the project, and ultimately helped to get the investigation started, Garner wrote in an email.
“This collaboration highlights the invaluable role that local knowledge plays in guiding scientific inquiry,” he noted.
During June and July, Burgoff drove a boat while Buckman and Garner collected samples. “[Garner] basically free dove, so without any additional oxygen or anything, he would take a bottle in his hands and dive underwater ... to the bottom and ... open up the bottle and get the water sample, and then come back to the surface and come back to the boat,” Burgoff explained.
Back in the lab at UMass Amherst, Garner filtered the samples he collected to extract any skin cells, scales, excrement and mucus from the fish, all of which contain its DNA. Four samples from Westmoreland; Northfield, Mass.; and Vernon, Vt.; were positive for shortnose sturgeon DNA.
The researchers plan to continue the investigation this fall and winter by collecting more samples.
Despite identifying the fish’s presence, there are still some questions they haven’t answered, like whether or not the fish left and came back to the area, or if it was always here and scientists just didn’t know.
“There are a number of hypotheses on different ways shortnose sturgeon could have accessed the reaches north of Turners Falls and remained there, as well as how long they could have been there without being noticed, but there’s no definitive answer at this point,” the lead scientists said in an email to The Sentinel.
Additionally, it’s not yet clear how big the population in the area is. “Without more surveys and funds, it’s hard to say. Based on our preliminary results ... we would hypothesize that these endangered fish are present throughout these upstream reaches, but likely at lower numbers than where they exist farther south.”
Conservation efforts also played a role in getting the project started.
Garner and Buckman say with the discovery that the shortnose sturgeon exists in this part of the Connecticut River, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration can now apply Endangered Species Act provisions there. These protections could range from safeguarding important habitats for the shortnose sturgeon to conducting more research to gauge the size of the population in the area.
Some of the steps non-scientists can take to protect the species are supporting organizations working on conservation efforts, reporting sightings of the fish, reducing personal chemical pollution and advocating for stronger environmental polices and conservation measures, according to the scientists.
“I would just hope that you know, the resource agencies, whether it be federal or state, would really take this information seriously and really get involved to try to facilitate some sort of change with how the dams are operated,” Burgoff said.
“That’s really what ... at the end of the day, would be the goal with all this research.”
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