In the winter of 1953, when almost 3,000 fish were taken, the public awoke to the reality that the sturgeon could soon be harvested to extinction. Sturgeon fishers and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources began to work together to monitor the population and set catch limits. As soon as the quota for a given year is reached, the season ends, sometimes just hours after it opened. At weigh stations on shore, each fish is sexed and weighed, and its age is estimated from a slice of its dorsal fin, which has growth bands like tree rings. Just think — that one hatched the year the Titanic sank! The weigh station is itself an ephemeral village, where people of all ages gather to see the giant fish pulled from this parallel, primeval world.
Source: latimes.com – Los Angeles Times