Several populations of lake sturgeon have experienced levels of restoration with help of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. There are fisheries located from North Carolina all the way to the Great Lakes that not only support restoration of lake sturgeon populations. However, many lake sturgeon populations still remain imperiled. The USFWS is going through measures to restore the species of lake sturgeon by recording abundance, distribution, age, growth and health of the species. Lake sturgeon are tagged and released by the USFWS to capture a better understanding of their life cycle. While strict regulations have been put in place to monitor harvests, hatcheries have been heavily used in restoration efforts.