HOPEWELL – The Atlantic sturgeon, a prehistoric fish whose once bountiful populations were depleted by anglers, has been declared an endangered species by federal officials.

The decision could lead to moves to protect its habitats along the East Coast, including in the James River near Hopewell. The spot is home to the only known spawning population in the Chesapeake Bay or its tributaries.

Effective April 6, the listing will provide greater protection for the dinosaur-like fish and may add regulations to the commercial fishing industry.

Once common throughout the bay and Atlantic coast, sturgeon are known for their bony plates, called scutes. They live in saltwater and freshwater, can grow up to 14 feet long and weigh up to 800 pounds.

Prized for their eggs, which sold as caviar, and their skin, which was worked as leather and turned in clothing, book-binding and other products, sturgeon were heavily fished during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Fishing, combined with loss of habitat, pollution and ship strikes, decreased the population, leading Virginia to outlaw commercial harvesting in 1974. A national ban followed in 1998.

Despite the protection, sturgeon have been slow to recover.

About 20,000 adult females inhabited the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries before 1890. But a 2007 report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which made Tuesday’s announcement, said there were fewer than 300 spawning females in the James River.

Scientists say because sturgeon can live for 60 years, they are slow to reproduce.

Virginia is trying to restore sturgeon and created the first sanctuary for their breeding two years ago.

Luck Stone Corp. donated rock and placed it at the mouth of the Turkey Island Cut, a shipping channel that separates Presquile National Wildlife Refuge from the south bank of the James River near Hopewell. The artificial reef, which is about the size of a football field, was funded by a $50,000 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

Last year, Vulcan Materials Co. donated more than $52,000 of crushed stone to the effort.

Jack Travelstead, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission fisheries chief, said last year that an endangered listing could lead to restrictions on the state’s gill- and pound-net fisheries, both of which are responsible for millions of dollars of fish landed annually in Virginia.

NOAA said it will try not to affect other fisheries.

Federal officials say they will work with scientists and fishermen who study sturgeon in the Bay so their research can continue amid new protections afforded endangered animals.

One tricky part could be in determining what constitutes the “taking” of a protected sturgeon and how authorities will enforce this concept.

Taking is barred under the Endangered Species Act and includes the “harassing, harming, pursuing, wounding, killing, trapping, capturing or collecting” of a protected creature.

Officials also must establish “critical habitat” to give sturgeon the best chance of recovery. These habitats can be policed similarly to the species themselves, often leading to conflicts with fishermen, tourists and researchers who might inadvertently damage defined living spaces.

The National Marine Fisheries Service ruling covers the New York Bight, which includes the Delaware and Hudson rivers, and the Chesapeake, Carolina and South Atlantic populations. The sturgeon population in the Gulf of Maine was also declared threatened.

The service, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said a recent study indicated that the loss of only a few adult female sturgeons in the Delaware River as a result of vessel strikes would hinder recovery of the population, and the populations in the New York Bight and Chesapeake Bay are at risk of extinction.

NOAA said it is currently considering information on sturgeon populations in order to designate critical habitat.

Environmental groups have sought to stop dredging of the Delaware River, citing the harm it could cause to the sturgeon population.

“We simply have too few to spare for a make-work boondoggle like the Delaware River deepening,” said Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper, after the decision was announced.

Federal officials said that before 1890 an estimated 180,000 female sturgeon spawned in the Delaware River. The Delaware is believed to have less than 300 sturgeon today.

In the Hudson, more than 6,000 females were estimated to spawn each year, compared to about 600 now, according to NOAA.

Brad Sewell, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, which petitioned for the declaration, said that despite a decade-old ban on fishing, other threats have proved too challenging. He said the decision gives the fish that survived the Ice Age “a fighting chance to live on into the 21st century.”

– The Associated Press, The Virginian-Pilot, Daily Press and The Progress-Index contributed to this report.