WHAT IS NAMEW DOING RIGHT NOW?

One of the ways that we’re learning about namew is by tagging them, and then using a series of receivers in the river to pick up the signals from these tags. Once a year, we pull up and download all of these receivers, and find out what the namew have been doing all year — where they have gone, how active they have been, and how deep they have been in the river at different times of the year. It gives us an underwater window into the life of the lake sturgeon!

The tags that we use let us track namew activity and behaviour all year, even under the ice.

This time of year, it also gives us an under-the-ice window into the life of the lake sturgeon. And one of the really interesting things that we have learned is that namew are active all year round. They are much less active when there is ice on the water, but they are still moving around under the ice. They even still respond to darkness and sunlight, even under the thick layers of ice and snow!

And so this time of year, while the ice is thickening on the lakes and rivers, and snow is starting to pile up on top of the ice, namew are still swimming around out there below the ice. They will find the deeper places in the river, where they still have lots of water beneath the ice, and they will spend the winter in larger groups, all still swimming around together.

Maybe this is their idea of a cozy way to spend the colder and darker days — but I think that I’ll still stick with a warm fire and some hot chocolate.

A namew under the water. Photo credit: WCS Canada/Claire Farrell.