SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) -- Lake sturgeon have returned to one of the only places they were once abundant in South Dakota, Big Stone Lake.

It's thanks to a nearly 10 year project between both the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and South Daktoa Game, Fish & Parks that stocked sturgeon fingerlings into the lake, after years of poor water quality preventing their population to grow.

Between 3,000 and 6,000 fingerlings are stocked into the lake every year, minus 2020. The fingerlings come from a national fish hatchery in Wisconsin.

Prior to the conservation efforts, lake sturgeon were prominent in Big Stone Lake throughout the 1900s.

Chelsey Pasbrig, an aquatic biologist with South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks, says sturgeon in Big Stone Lake are growing faster than other waters.

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