Each morning, the first thing fisheries biologist Aaron Schiller does is check his underwater web cam for any sign of a lake sturgeon.
Known by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources as “a living fossil,” the prehistoric freshwater fish has been around for at least 150 million years. But in the 1900s, it was rendered extinct in the Milwaukee River due to overfishing, habitat degradation, pollution and dam construction.
That’s why on March 30, when Schiller saw a lake sturgeon in Ozaukee County at the Mequon-Thiensville Dam, he couldn’t believe his eyes…