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  • Beautiful fish. Seen it in person.
    by peterpanhead
  • About thirty years ago, I was canoeing on the Suwannee when a sturgeon full out of the water breached fifty feet behind us.

    Nearly scared the bejeezus out of me.

    And still feels like something I dreamed.

    by brudgers
  • I feel somewhat skeptical of the methods as they were superficially described in this article. Will need to read more later. However, I also have been aware of the demise of sturgeon and I really hope we will get to see their populations return.
    by odyssey7
  • I know this is always an unpopular opinion but I just think we as a species should eat far fewer animals. Fish species have been really substantially negatively affected all over the planet by human activity, activities such as bottom trawling and line fishing are hugely destructive (the lines can be tens of km long!) and the whole marine ecosystem is under unique threats from climate change. We don't really know what we are killing and eating, and I am sure we will regret it later on scientifically.

    I'm a lifelong plant eater and you can survive very happily, healthily, with lower carbon footprints at all stages of life with it. And if anyone says "protein" or DHA I'll talk all about the pentose phosphate pathway whilst munching linseeds.

    by azalemeth
  • Wild to imagine what the PCB concentration must be in a creature like that
    by awakeasleep
  • Better for the big picture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huso_fulvescens Also, note the recent reclassification from Acipenser to Huso.

    From the descriptions there, the article's estimate of 99% (reduction from historic population levels) is a severe underestimate.

    by bell-cot
  • I live in Oregon and have been fishing for as long as I can remember. While I mostly fished for lake trout, we'd fish for salmon in the Columbia river during salmon season. During the off season (winter) I'd fish for sturgeon.

    One year my buddy decided to get serious gear and fish for oversized sturgeon. This was purely catch-and-release, barbless hooks. We would sit on the edge of the shipping lanes because that was the deepest part of the river.

    (incoming fisherman story)

    One day we hooked a gigantic fish, we were in a 24 foot boat and I swear it was longer than that. We pulled it near the boat to unhook it and the thing was amazing! It was covered in battle scars from boat propellers or something, but the weirdest part was that it had a ton of fishing line hanging out of it's ass. Over the years it must've swallowed hooks and line, and it was just swimming around with literally feet of the stuff.

    We retrieved our hook and watched it swim back into the depths. I never went oversized fishing after that, but it was incredible to think how old that fish was, what it had been through, etc.

    by s5fs
  • Kayak fished the St. Croix river last year, on the border of Minnesota and Wisconsin, for smallmouth bass. Crystal clear water. Floated over several huge sturgeon, 4-6 feet long. The way they look, it feels like coming across a dinosaur. Thankfully they're bottom feeders.
    by aschla

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