Lots of chips on the side.
Posted: Fri May 07, 2021 11:08 am
The US Fish and Wildlife Service received quite a big surprise last week, when they caught a giant fish, estimated to be more than 100 years old, in the Detroit River.
The 240lb lake sturgeon was caught by a three-person crew on 22 April, just south of Detroit near Grosse Ile. The agency described the huge fish, which measured almost 7ft long, as “a real life river monster”.
The large aquatic creature was caught using frozen round goby, small, soft-bodied fish that serve as tasty snacks for sturgeon, as bait, on a long line reaching deep into the Detroit River. It took about six minutes for the crew of fishing biologists to get the large fish into their boat, using a net.
“I felt the fish thumping on the line. As it got closer, it just got bigger and bigger,” said Jason Fischer, who was with fellow biologists Paige Wigren and Jennifer Johnson.
The agency said it quickly released the fish back into the river after it was weighed and measured.
Wigren recalled thinking at the time that capturing the sturgeon would result in “a real good fish story”.
“She was tired out and didn’t fight us very much,” Wigren said. “Imagine everything that fish has lived through and seen.”
Lake sturgeon, a threatened species in Michigan and 18 other states, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service, are freshwater fish that are known to inhabit the bottoms of lakes, river basins and drainages including the Hudson Bay, the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. Over-harvesting and habitat loss from dam construction are known reasons for the fish’s decline.
Anglers can keep one sturgeon per year, but only if the fish is a certain size and is caught in a few state waters. All sturgeon caught in the Detroit River must be released.
While the typical lifespan is 55 years for a male sturgeon and 70 to 100 years for females, according to the Michigan department of natural resources, the gargantuan Detroit River sturgeon, a female, is believed to have lived even longer.
“Based on its girth and size, it is assumed to be a female and that she has been roaming our waters over 100 years,” said the Fish and Wildlife Service.
