In the red river, the lake sturgeon was near the point of extirpation, with intense pressure from human over-fishing. By 1900 sturgeon were being removed at around 450,000 kg per year, but this was unsustainable, and within ten years the sturgeon fishing delcined to 3% of its former population. This caused the ban on sturgeon fishing until needed in world war 1, when it was overfished to the point of not being able to recover naturally, with a total of over two million kg's of fish being removed. These fish are desirable for their good tasting meat, and ease of being smoked. As well, one of these fish could replace many others, as they could weigh up to 400lbs, and were easy to kill during spawning.  While today there are some areas were the sturgeon can contiue to surve naturally, the red river area is stocked in an effort to maintain the population. The inability to for the popultion to bounce back comes from their slow reproductive rate. Female sturgeon do not start reproducing until around the age of 20, and only spawn every four or five years.

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