View source for Sturgeon Bay

{{Short description|Arm of Green Bay within the Door Peninsula, Wisconsin}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use American English|date=July 2025}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Infobox body of water
| name = Sturgeon Bay
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| image = ISS011-E-15174 View of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.jpg
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| caption = Taken on May 16, 2005 from the International Space Station
| pushpin_map = Wisconsin#USA
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| location = [[Door County, Wisconsin]]
| coords = {{coord|44|51|15|N|87|23|40|W|region:US-WI_type:waterbody_scale:500000|display=inline, title}}
| type = [[Bay]]
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| elevation = {{convert|581|ft}}
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| cities = [[Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin|Sturgeon Bay]], [[Nasewaupee]], [[Sevastopol, Wisconsin|Sevastopol]], [[Idlewild, Wisconsin|Idlewild]]
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}}
'''Sturgeon Bay''' is an arm of [[Green Bay (Lake Michigan)|Green Bay]] extending southeastward approximately 10 miles into the [[Door Peninsula]] at the [[Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin|city of Sturgeon Bay]], located approximately halfway up the Door Peninsula.<ref>{{cite gnis|1574999|Sturgeon Bay (Wisconsin)}}</ref> The bay is connected to [[Lake Michigan]] by the [[Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal]]. The Potawatomi name for Sturgeon Bay is "Na-ma-we-qui-tong".<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=7GxIAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22Na-ma-we-qui-tong%22&pg=PA50 The Wisconsin Archeologist, Volume 19, No 2, page 50]</ref>

== Origin ==
The bay seems to represent the pre-glacial path of the [[Menominee River]], with the valley deepened by glacial carving and then submerged into rising lakewaters.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=1V4iAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA289 The Physical Geography of Wisconsin] by Lawrence Martin, Bulletin Number XXXVI, Educational Series Number 4, Madison Wisconsin: Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey, 1916 Chapter XII: The Wisconsin Coast of Lake Michigan, page 289</ref>

== Bridges ==
Three bridges cross the bay, including the historic [[Sturgeon Bay Bridge]], and the recently finished Oregon Street Bridge.

== Fish ==
Sturgeon Bay and Little Sturgeon (just to the south of Sturgeon Bay) are considered [[biodiversity hotspot]]s because they support a large number of different fish species.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Kovalenko|first1=Katya E.|last2=Johnson|first2=Lucinda B.|last3=Brady|first3=Valerie J.|last4=Ciborowski|first4=Jan J. H.|last5=Cooper|first5=Matthew J.|last6=Gathman|first6=Joseph P.|last7=Lamberti|first7=Gary A.|last8=Moerke|first8=Ashley H.|author-link8=Ashley Moerke|last9=Ruetz|first9=Carl R.|last10=Uzarski|first10=Donald G.|date=2019-07-02|title=Hotspots and bright spots in functional and taxonomic fish diversity|journal=Freshwater Science|volume=38|issue=3|pages=480–490|doi=10.1086/704713|s2cid=198274535 |issn=2161-9549|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Researchers collected [[viral hemorrhagic septicemia]] viruses from 184 different fish from 2003 to 2017. Two were found from 2007 to 2010 infecting smallmouth bass within Sturgeon Bay. Each of them was a different variant of a type not found in the middle or lower Great Lakes.<ref>{{cite journal | doi=10.1002/ece3.6611 | title=Evolutionary trajectory of fish ''Piscine novirhabdovirus'' (=Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia Virus) across its Laurentian Great Lakes history: Spatial and temporal diversification | date=2020 | last1=Stepien | first1=Carol A. | last2=Niner | first2=Megan D. | journal=Ecology and Evolution | volume=10 | issue=18 | pages=9740–9775 | pmid=33005343 | pmc=7520192 | bibcode=2020EcoEv..10.9740S }}</ref>

== Mayflies ==
In June 2016, an estimated several thousand mayflies hatched in Sawyer Bay (within Sturgeon Bay). This was the result of an experiment to stock millions of eggs from the species ''[[Hexagenia limbata]]'' and ''[[Hexagenia bilineata]]'' in the lower Green Bay area in an attempt to reintroduce the species. The last mayfly from the genus ''[[Hexagenia]]'' had been collected in the lower Green Bay area in 1955. As mayfly populations can be unstable and not all stocking locations appeared to be successful, as of 2017 it was not yet known whether it would be possible for populations of ''Hexagenia'' mayflies to become self-sustaining.<ref>[https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5d03bfb936126b000179a66b/t/5d080c80e259a50001faf6b6/1560808598739/Kaster+et+al+2018+Green+Bay.pdf Evaluation of lower Green Bay benthic fauna with emphasis on re-ecesis of Hexagenia mayfly nymphs] by Jerry L. Kaster, Christopher M. Groff, J. Val Klump, Danielle L. Rupp, Suneil Iyer, Ashely Hansen, Samantha Barbour, and Louisa Hall, doi.org/10.1016/j.jglr.2018.06.006, ''Journal of Great Lakes Research'' (2018), p. 14</ref>

== Climate ==
{|
|-
|{{climate chart
|  Dunlap Reef (in the middle of the bay<ref>[http://map.co.door.wi.us/map/index.html?call=search_pin&fieldname0=PIN&value0=2816454000300 Dunlap Reef], Web-Map of Door County, Wisconsin</ref>)
| -8| -6| 57
| -15| -8| 54
| -4| 1| 60
| -2| 9| 129
| 3| 13| 93
| 9| 18| 85
| 12| 21| 97
| 15| 20| 78
| 12| 19| 87
| 3| 11| 129
| 1| 7| 85
| -2| -2| 65
|float=left
|clear=left
|source = <ref name = "nasa">{{Cite web |url= https://search.earthdata.nasa.gov/|title= NASA EarthData Search |access-date = 30 January 2016 |publisher= NASA}}</ref>
}}
[[File:View of the Old Stone Quarry at George K. Pinney County Park across Sturgeon Bay from Potawatomi State Park in Door County, Wisconsin, April 26, 2014.jpg|thumb|Mixture of ice and open water in the bay, April]]
|}

== Gallery ==
{{gallery|mode=packed|align=center|width=135|height=135
|File:Sturgeon Bay aerial view.webm|Flyover of Sturgeon Bay
|File:Ships in Sturgeon Bay.jpg|Aerial view of Sturgeon Bay
|File:ISS048-E-3040 - View of Earth.jpg|Taken June 20, 2016 from the International Space Station
|File:Sturgeon Bay on March 20, 2022, cropped from R2AWF03202022280038, IRS AWiFS.png|Taken March 20, 2022 with Resourcesat-2; the path made by the [[icebreaker]] extends into the canal.
|File:Sturgeon Bay on March 28, 2022, cropped from R2AWF03282022272036, IRS AWiFS.png|Taken March 28, 2022 with [[Resourcesat-2]]
|File:Aerial view of the outer portion of the bay of Sturgeon Bay, Door County, Wisconsin 2020.png|Outer portion of the bay
|File:Aerial view of the inner portion of the bay of Sturgeon Bay, Door County, Wisconsin 2020.png|Further into the bay
|File:Eastern side of Sturgeon Bay, Door County, Wisconsin 2020.png|Inner portion of the bay
|File:Aerial view of the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal, Door County, Wisconsin 2020.png|End of the bay and the connection with the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal
|File:SturgeonBayWisconsinBay.jpg|Looking southeast across Sturgeon Bay from [[Potawatomi State Park]]
|File:SturgeonBayNorthwestPotawatomiStatePark.jpg|Looking northeast at the mouth of Sturgeon Bay from Potawatomi State Park
|File:View of parked cars from the top of the rock cut at the Old Stone Quarry, Sevastopol, Door County, Wisconsin.jpg|View to the southwest across Sturgeon Bay to Cabot Point in the [[Idlewild, Wisconsin|Idlewild]] area (background, right) and the bluff at Potawatomi State Park (background, center) from the Old Stone Quarry in Sevastopol; much of the quarry is now George K. Pinney County Park
}}
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|oLeft = 3582|Location      = center
|Description   = Sturgeon Bay, 1:10 AM CDT
}}
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==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

{{Greatlakes}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Bays of Wisconsin]]
[[Category:Bodies of water of Door County, Wisconsin]]
[[Category:Bays of Lake Michigan]]


{{DoorCountyWI-geo-stub}}