Longest documented coastal migrations of shortnose sturgeon
Open accessAbstract
The shortnose sturgeon (SNS; Acipenser brevirostrum ) is a United States federally endangered diadromous species. Although SNS spend much of their time in riverine habitat, inter‐river migrations have been documented in northern populations. However, the inter‐river migratory behaviour and distance capabilities of southern SNS are poorly understood. In this communication, we describe two SNS that migrated approximately 425 km across the coast, far exceeding the previously reported maximum coastal migration distance for the species. These observations offer critical updates for species descriptions and management regarding the coastal migration ability of SNS.
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Recent telemetry studies found that adult shortnose sturgeon may make frequent inter-river migrations, but those migrations occurred outside the summer sampling window.
“recent telemetry studies found that adults may make frequent interriver migrations-but that those migrations occurred outside our summer sampling window (Nolan et al. 2025;2026).”
From Assessing shortnose sturgeon response to estuarine dredging in the Savannah River using a before-after control-impact (BACI) approach (2026) · cites this paper as Nolan et al. 2025
The paper’s movement-pattern passage (labelled Abstract in our copy; no page given) places the two tracked adults’ inter-river migrations around the winter–spring spawning window, outside summer. It documents repeated movements by those two fish, but says the proportion of adults that migrate this way is unknown; it does not establish that such migrations are frequent among adults generally. (LLM, conf=0.82)
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Research works printed but not linked: 17
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Cited by
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Rider, H. J., Morgan, K. M., Bond, A. T., Nolan, J. D., Fox, A. G., & Hamel, M. J. (2026) · Environmental Biology of Fishes · doi:10.1007/s10641-026-01901-0 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Nolan, J. D., Post, W. C., Waldrop, E., Facendola, J. J., Loeffler, M. S., Collier, W., Ingram, E. C., Hamel, M. J., & Fox, A. G.
- Affiliations
- University of Georgia (US)
- South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (US)
- North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (US)
- South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (US)
- Corresponding author
- Nolan, Joseph D.
- Venue
- Journal of Fish Biology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2025-09-02
- Volume
- 107
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 2160-2165
- ISSN
- 0022-1112 (ISSN-L)
- 1095-8649
- PMC
- PMC12861834
- OpenAlex
- W4413962728
- Cited by
- 3
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3
- FWCI
- 1.93
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Fish Biology (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Marine Fisheries Service (NA10NMF4720036)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Fish Ecology and Management Studies
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Ichthyology and Marine Biology
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Aquatic Science › Fish Biology and Ecology Studies
- Keywords
- shortnose sturgeon, Acipenser brevirostrum, coastal migration, diadromous fish, threatened species, migration distance, southern populations, fish movement
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Fishes, Ecosystem, Animal Migration, Endangered Species
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