FISHING
Talking Sturgeon With WDFW’s Specialist With keeper season set to begin on the Columbia estuary, Laura Heironimus details how the big river’s longest-lived species is monitored and managed. By M.D. Johnson
I
f you’ll recall, a couple months ago Northwest Sportsman featured an interview with Laura Heironimus, the biologist in charge of everything smelt for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Seems smelt aren’t the only hat Heironimus wears for the agency, as she’s also the lead for the department’s sturgeon program. And lamprey eels, but that’s another story. “Everything sturgeon is probably the largest priority on my plate,” Heironimus said. “We’re doing research and monitoring, along with harvest management with white sturgeon. Our unit, specifically, does stock assessment for the Lower Columbia below Bonneville, as well as upriver in what’s known as the Zone 6 area, which includes the Bonneville, Dalles and John Day Pools. We occasionally, when we have funding, do work up in McNary and the lower Snake Rivers.” “I also,” she continued, “serve on the Mid-Columbia Fish Forums up through Priest Rapids and up to Chief Joe to discuss mitigation for sturgeon activities up there.” She’s a busy person, Heironimus is, and about to get busier as a 12day sturgeon retention season from
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife scientific technician Brian Moser releases a young sturgeon back into the Lower Columbia after measuring and tagging it. With the fish population depressed, monitoring is a key part of state management. (WDFW)
nwsportsmanmag.com | MAY 2021
Northwest Sportsman 71
