Scientists and students embarking on a census of Georgia lake sturgeon have found three females with mature eggs — an indication that the prehistoric fish may be reproducing in Georgia for the first time in a half-century. Polluted water and markets for caviar and fish meat had wiped the species out of the Coosa River in the 1970s.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources is celebrating the catch of a 19-pound sturgeon on the Etowah River. It’s the largest ever found since the...