Environmental assessment : issuance of a protected species conservation and recovery grant to the Maine Department of Marine Resources (Award File 4720023) to conduct research on sturgeon in Maine Issuance of a protected species conservation and recovery grant to the Maine Department of Marine Resources (Award File 4720023) to conduct research on sturgeon in Maine Award File 4720023

"The current EA analyzed the effects of the proposed Atlantic and shortnose sturgeon research in Maine. Specifically, the funded work would be used to: collect information using regionally standardized methods to estimate population size of sturgeon in major river systems; characterize intersystem movements-including determining which coastal river systems are being used, what paths fish take to traverse between them, and the timing and duration of such movements; determine feeding habitat and trophic position of sturgeon in each river; determine the sex and stage of maturity using circulating levels of reproductive hormones; determine whether elemental analysis of scutes can be used to accurately reconstruct the river of juvenile origin for subadult and adult fish captured in a given system; expand regional collaboration among Gulf of Maine (GoM) researchers to place demographic connectivity and correspondence into its broader research and management context"--Cover letter.