CLEVELAND, Ohio – Saturday will be a big day for a once-thriving resident of Lake Erie.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources will release 2,000 fingerling sturgeon into the Cuyahoga River, hoping that in 15 to 20 years they will come back to reproduce.

It takes that long for sturgeon to become sexually mature.

The goal is to reestablish a healthy sturgeon population in Lake Erie that was depleted starting in the 1800s due to over-fishing, the draining of the Great Black Swamp at the western end of the lake, and the damming of tributaries.

At one time, sturgeon spawned in 19 Lake Erie tributaries, including the Cuyahoga, Sandusky and Maumee rivers.

Today, only two stable populations of sturgeon exist in Lake Erie, said Eric Weimer, fisheries biologist with the Ohio Division of Wild

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