[JoeProBono]

Recent estimates show the population has increased to about 50,000 fish.

To Zeb Hogan, who leads National Geographic's Megafishes Project and has studied the sturgeon, it's a rare success story. (Learn about the world's gargantuan freshwater fish.)

"Worldwide, most species of large freshwater fish are in danger of going extinct in the near future," said Hogan, a National Geographic emerging explorer. (The National Geographic Society operates National Geographic News.)

"The white sturgeon seems to have avoided the fate of species like the Chinese paddlefish of the Yangtze River and the critically endangered giant catfish of the Mekong River."

[JoeProBono]

[djf]

Yikes!

My flipper is almost that big!
(at least I heard rumors...)

[SouthDixie]

Best fish I have ever ate and the nice thing is there are no bones aside from the backbone.

We used to catch them in British Columbia and there are restrictions. Catch/keep anything over 7' and you WILL be find handsomely.

[DieHard the Hunter]

Sturgeon are magnificent creatures. Huge and reptilian-looking. Prehistoric would be the right word. They live in the muddy Fraser River, not far from where I grew up.

I saw only one, once, when I was nineteen. I was out in Mission, BC, sitting on a dock, minding my own business, feeding the ducks the crusts of a leftover samwich. It was a beautiful summer day...

Suddenly, the ducks swam out of the way, then flew off. There was a wake in the murky, still water making its way slowly toward me. So I watched.

Eventually the wake got close enough to the dock (and me) for me to see what was going on.

It was a large butt-ugly fish-face: the most improbable looking face, just under the water. And it was attached to a huge, long body that just sorta disappeared behind it. I have no idea how long it was, but it was long.

The fish swam lazily under the dock. I didn’t see it emerge out the other side, but perhaps it went deeper into the mud.

That was definitely something to see. Unforgettable.

[fanfan]

[alexander_busek]

Mmmmm... Caviar!

Regards,