Today, sturgeon are still caught with gill nets, haul seines, pound nets, fish slides, and weirs. Fishing seasons generally occur during spring spawning migrations and some fall migrations. The restoration and management of Atlantic sturgeon is under way. Because so little is understood about the migration patterns of Atlantic sturgeon, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in partnerships with several states, has initiated a program to tag wild sturgeon along the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf of Mexico. Serial numbers printed on the tags can be reported to the service when a tagged fish is caught.
Participants then receive a reward.
In this way, citizens help to provide data on distribution, mortality, age, growth and coastal migration patterns of the fish. Other efforts include producing hatchery-reared fish for further study and for possible release into the wild, and raising the minimum size limit on the Atlantic sturgeon fishery. Virginia has closed its Atlantic sturgeon fishery entirely. In the Chesapeake Bay, no Atlantic sturgeon greater than 7 feet has been caught since 1970. It will take more than the reduction of fishing pressure and the stocking of fish to bring the Atlantic sturgeon back.