As the water temperature drops with the onset of Fall, Atlantic sturgeon begin staging in the lower James River to make their seasonal spawning run upstream near Richmond. Now you can see the Great Return of the Atlantic Sturgeon with the James River Association (JRA).
Join staff members for a 1.5-hour cruise aboard the 40-foot pontoon boat, Spirit of the James, launching from Osborne Park and Boat Landing in Richmond. This cruise series kicks off September 14, coinciding with James River Week.
Editor’s Note: As of Wednesday, Aug. 28, the tours were full. You can still learn a lot about James River sturgeon and keep your eyes peeled for this fall’s sturgeon run!
The large, long-lived, ancient sturgeon developed from fossil ancestors that lived some 80 million years ago. Members of the species have been making this run up the current James and its preceding rivers for more millennia than we can comprehend. When the Jamestown settlers came to the river in 1607, local tribes taught them to catch and smoke the massive fish, which in those days lived up to 60 years and grew to lengths of 10 feet or more. The fall-run fish may have saved the colonists that year.
Unfortunately, over the next four centuries, we humans overharvested them for food, including caviar, and polluted the river—especially from the Industrial Revolution through the 1970s—to the point that scientists believed that the James no longer held a viable, reproducing stock of sturgeon.
Virginia banned fishing for them in 1974, and the federal government declared the species endangered in 2012. But the Clean Water Act of 1972 and a broad partnership of government agencies, conservation organizations, fishermen, and citizen volunteers have, over the succeeding years, greatly improved the health of the James (and the Chesapeake as a whole). As the James improved, stories of sturgeon in the river began cropping up among watermen and scientists. Since the 1990s, they have worked in close partnership to assess the size of the stock, study their behavior, and improve their spawning habitat.
We reported on their comeback beginning in 2018, as the discovery of juvenile sturgeon encouraged JRA. Today, the James hosts one of the strongest runs of Atlantic sturgeon on the East Coast. Tireless tagging efforts by Dr. Matt Balazik at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Rice Rivers Center continue to shed light. You can read more here about the research and the remarkable return of these majestic fish.
On the JRA trips, participants will learn about both the natural resources of the James River and the sturgeon. Each boat ride is 1.5 hours long. Participants must be ages 12 and up, and anyone under 18 must have a registered guardian participant.
The 2024 Trip Dates are:
- Saturday, September 14th: 10am; 12pm (FULL)
- Sunday, September 15th: 10am; 12pm (FULL)
- Saturday, September 21st: 10am; 12pm (NOW FULL)
- Sunday, September 22nd: 10am; 12pm (NOW FULL)
Since the cruises filled up quickly for 2024, now is the time to follow the James River Association on their social media accounts for continuing sturgeon observations and boat rides for next year’s run.
The Great Return of Atlantic sturgeon to the James River is one of the best success stories of the forty-year effort to restore the health of the Chesapeake. Come see for yourself!
