<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<oai_dc:dc xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:oai_dc="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/ http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc.xsd">
  <dc:contributor>Matthew A. Phillips</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>Savannah R. Perry</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>Brian J. Irwin</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>John D. Damer</dc:contributor>
  <dc:creator>Martin J. Hamel</dc:creator>
  <dc:date>2025</dc:date>
  <dc:description>&lt;p&gt;Objective&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Lake Sturgeon&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Acipenser fluences&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;became extirpated from the Coosa River system in Georgia and Alabama during the 1970s. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources began stocking hatchery-raised Lake Sturgeon in 2002 with the goal of reestablishing a self-sustaining population. Stocking lapsed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which allowed an opportunity to assess natural recruitment to the reintroduced population.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Methods&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;We conducted trammel-net surveys during May–August in 2022 and 2023 and removed a pectoral fin spine section from all captured individuals. We compared the fin spine sections of suspected naturally hatched juveniles with those from known-age, hatchery-raised juveniles to confirm our age estimates.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Results&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;We captured one age-2 juvenile Lake Sturgeon in 2022 and eight age-3 juveniles in 2023. This indicates the presence of natural recruitment due to the absence of stocking of hatchery individuals in 2020.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Conclusions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Documenting individuals of a year-class that was not created by hatchery-raised juveniles provides the first evidence that offspring of early reintroduced Lake Sturgeon are being recruited into the reintroduced population in the Coosa River, Georgia.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</dc:description>
  <dc:format>application/pdf</dc:format>
  <dc:identifier>10.1093/najfmt/vqaf037</dc:identifier>
  <dc:language>en</dc:language>
  <dc:publisher>American Fisheries Society</dc:publisher>
  <dc:title>First evidence of natural reproduction and recruitment of reintroduced Lake Sturgeon in the Coosa River, Georgia</dc:title>
  <dc:type>article</dc:type>
</oai_dc:dc>