Sturgeon!

This photo was supplied by my Aunt Betty and Uncle Bob who live in Oregon. This sturgeon was caught on the Willamette River just below Oregon City. It weighed out at over 1,000 lbs and measured out at 11'1". It was 56" around the girth and took over 6 and ½ hours to land the critter.

Mom’s brothers and sister all live in the Pacific Northwest. My Uncle Dwight and Uncle Gary are both big fishermen. Golly, I have not been fishing once this year. I must change that next year.

This sturgeon reminds me of when I was teaching the Vertebrate Zoology course at GSC. Part of the course involved looking at the great variety of fishes that exist in the world. We had many buckets of fish specimens in buckets of formalin for observation and study. A couple of sturgeons graced our collection. How big of a bucket would it take to keep the specimen above?

Sturgeons are one of the oldest species of fish in existence. We do not have sturgeon living in West Virginia’s rivers. We do, however, have the paddlefish which is also another very ancient fish. The paddlefish is seen below. It is a strange looking beast!



Sturgeons and paddlefish are bottom feeders. With their projecting wedgeshaped snout they stir up the soft bottom, and by means of their sensitive barbels detect shells, crustaceans and small fish, on which they feed. Having no teeth, they are unable to seize larger prey.

Sturgeon (and, therefore also the caviar trade) are under severe threat from overfishing, poaching and water pollution.