STURGEON GONE WILD
12/18/2007 9:33:08 AM by Stacy Wynn
When you’re out for a relaxing day on the water, the last thing you’d expect is for a 200-pound flying fish to come along and smack you in the face. Consider this your wake-up call.
When Sharon Touchton of St. Petersburg boarded her personal watercraft for a day of fun on the Suwannee River north of her Gulf Coast home, she had no idea she’d be the victim of a hit-and-run. What makes this incident distinctive is that the collision wasn’t with another PWC or boat, but with a giant jumping Gulf Sturgeon.
“We’ve been having problems with the sturgeon which came to a head in 2006 when 10 people were injured by these jumpers which can leap up to six feet in the air,” says Karen Parker of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. “These fish get up to eight feet long and can weigh up to 200 pounds and they have a hard place along their spine that is very hazardous.”
Another marine enthusiast, Tara Spears, was knocked unconscious by one of the prehistoric fish whose lineage dates back to the age of dinosaurs. Nicholas Fessenden was similarly injured when a four-foot sturgeon jumped onto his PWC, knocking him off it. His girlfriend, riding a separate watercraft, kept his head above water until nearby boaters pulled him aboard. In yet another sturgeon-related incident, a giant fish leaped high in front of a boat, smashing into its windshield.
“There’s a lot of boat traffic on the Suwannee, especially in the summer, which is when the gulf sturgeon are also in the river,” says Alan Huff, research administrator at the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida. “More boats and more fish lead to more collisions. No one knows exactly what causes the jumping phenomenon.”
“On a weekend there might be hundreds of boats out as well as people tubing or kayaking,” says Parker, referring to the state’s million-plus registered boats. “Collisions are inevitable when more boaters come in contact with the animals. That’s showing itself all over the state with all kinds of critters. With the development and encroachment on habitat, we’re going to have more and more encounters between people and animals.”
Gulf sturgeon are listed as endangered by the 1991 U.S. Endangered Species Act, because they were being overfished for caviar and meat. The population has increased considerably since the ban went into effect, though their population is still rated fragile. “I sincerely hope that no one begins to think about getting rid of or reducing the number of these fish because of these accidents,” says Jerry Krummrich, Florida Wildlife Commission fishery biologist.
So now, in addition to sharks and gators, Florida residents need to keep an eye out for giant acrobatic Gulf sturgeon — since a giant face-smack by one of these monsters is perhaps even more frightening than a scene from Jaws.