The six-foot long, 100-pound, and thunderously loud lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) skulking around the Great Lakes may live upwards of 200 to 300 years. To test this, Colborne and his team dove into one of the largest long-term datasets ever assembled for lake sturgeon. Since lake sturgeon mature slowly and reproduce infrequently, it can take decades to replace their population numbers. University researchers, tribal nations, and state partners have spent decades protecting, tagging, and monitoring lake sturgeon across the Great Lakes. The Alpena Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office crew caught this 240 pound, 6 foot 10 inch female lake sturgeon in the Detroit River in January 2024.