Sturgeon Fest continues to make a splash after 10 years

McKenna Golat, Port Huron Times Herald
·2 min read

Soon thousands of people will line the St. Clair River together and celebrate the famous Blue Water Area sturgeon.

Sturgeon Fest has been bringing people closer to a certain Great Lakes resident for the past 10 years. To help celebrate that milestone, the new theme this year will be "Sturgeon and Friends." Friends of the St. Clair River President Sheri Faust said the new theme will feature sturgeon and many other Michigan wildlife species.

Faust said Sturgeon Fest is truly a highlight for the Blue Water Area. She said it's an example of ecotourism that celebrates the local natural resources.

People pet a large lake sturgeon during the Blue Water Sturgeon Festival.
People pet a large lake sturgeon during the Blue Water Sturgeon Festival.

"We're really excited to celebrate our 10th year with a new theme to help showcase more local wildlife from the watershed," she said.

Sturgeon Fest will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., June 3 at the Fort Gratiot Lightstation Park, located at 2802 Omar St. Parking, admission and activities are free.

Sturgeon Fest is Friends of the St. Clair River's largest fundraiser and supports its year-round conservation and education programs.

The festival will have a live sturgeon touch tank, live music, vendor booths and live animal shows put on by Nature Discovery. In addition to the sturgeon, the festival will feature sea lamprey, Michigan native frogs, turtles and snakes, and presentations about St. Clair County's protected black tern.

Erin Rowan, a Michigan conservation manager with Audubon Great Lakes, holds a baby black tern between the palms of her hand before weighing it during a field research effort on black tern population at Harsens Island in Algonac on Thursday, June 30, 2022.
Erin Rowan, a Michigan conservation manager with Audubon Great Lakes, holds a baby black tern between the palms of her hand before weighing it during a field research effort on black tern population at Harsens Island in Algonac on Thursday, June 30, 2022.

"We wanted to expand the information that we share about our wildlife, or our local legends as we like to call them," Faust said.

Every year, fifth graders in St. Clair County participate in the Friends of the St. Clair River's sturgeon science program. The fifth graders create a poster to showcase what they learned at the end of the year. Friends of the St. Clair River narrowed down 10 posters out of 700 for people to vote as their favorite online.

The posters will be displayed at Sturgeon Fest for a live round of votes. The fifth graders whose posters are voted as the top three will get to hand release baby sturgeon back into Lake Huron.

Votes are cast through donation both online and in person.

In addition to the activities in the park, people will be able to ride the Huron Lady for the Sturgeon Cruise. The hour and a half, narrated cruises will take riders on the St. Clair River and Lake Huron to interact with biologists catching, tagging, measuring, and releasing Lake sturgeon underneath the Blue Water Bridge. The cruise will also feature a live sturgeon aquarium and sturgeon research activities from the U.S. Fisheries and Wildlife Service’s research vessel, the N’me.

The cruises will take place at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Tickets are $35.

Contact McKenna Golat at mgolat@gannett.com or (810) 292-0122.

This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: Sturgeon Fest coming to Port Huron