White sturgeon can grow to 12 feet long and live for a hundred years. Despite this, not a great deal is known about the lives of these ancient fish as they move between rivers, estuaries and the ocean. Recently, UC Davis researchers published a study of how white sturgeon move around the San Francisco Estuary and Sacramento river system as they grow and mature. The research shows how white sturgeon face environmental hazards, fishing and other threats over their lives. 

The team, led by Jon Walter, senior researcher at the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences, made use of years of acoustic telemetry data collected in the Delta region. Researchers had previously fitted individual sturgeon with tags that give an individual acoustic code. This code is picked up when a tagged fish swims near a recording station in the river. 

Eight years of data collected from 2011 to 2018 showed that juvenile fish were almost entirely found in the Suisun Bay area. As fish aged and approached sexual maturity, they were found further upriver, where sturgeon spawn. Older fish also ventured further into San Pablo Bay and San Francisco Bay and even into the Pacific. 

The research shows how fish at different life stages could be impacted differently by events such as "red tide" blooms of toxic algae or fishing. 

Read more about the study in this blog post.