600 elementary school students will each release one-year-old juveniles Nechako white sturgeon — born and raised in Vanderhoof’s conservation facility — into the Nechako River by Riverside Park on May 13 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
At the Nechako White Sturgeon Conservation Centre on Burrard Avenue, juvenile sturgeon produced each spring are held over the winter to allow them to grow large enough to escape most predation risks before their release.
This year’s event is the seventh annual Save-Our-Sturgeon presented by the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC and the Nechako White Sturgeon Recovery Initiative’s Community Working Group, which aims to increase the public’s awareness about the recovery process and the ecological problems facing the Nechako white sturgeon. As of April 1, 2015, all licence revenue generated from fishing licences is directed to the non-profit freshwater fisheries society to invest in services aimed at enhancing and conserving freshwater fish resources in BC.