White sturgeon measuring over 7 feet long rescued from poachers, Oregon officials say
Five sturgeon, including one that’s 7 feet long and likely more than 80 years old, were rescued from a poaching attempt in Oregon, local officials said.
According to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, “sportsmen fishing along the banks of Scappoose Bay” noticed that fishers on another boat had caught a sturgeon, but did not release it back into the water, as required by law. The witnesses reported that to Fish and Wildlife officers, who watched the fishers for two days before approaching them, a news release said.
The fishers told the two officers that they hadn’t caught any fish. But troopers saw two lines in the water, according to the news release. On them, officers found four live sturgeon.
In addition, “while inspecting the boat, they found the 88-inch giant white sturgeon,” the release said.
It takes 50 to 80 years for sturgeon to reach that size, and officials believe the sturgeon they saw was over 80 years old, the release said. They also believe the fish was most likely female, as female sturgeon tend to be larger.
One of the anglers admitted to catching the fish and was cited for possession of an oversized white sturgeon, a class C felony, the release said. Officials also issued citations for several other misdemeanor crimes related to fishing, according to the release.
All five sturgeon were still alive and were released back into the water, the release said.
White sturgeon are an endangered species, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They used to be “plentiful in Oregon waterways” and are sometimes referred to as a “living-dinosaur among fish” because they have many of the same characteristics they had when they first evolved around 200 million years ago, the release said.
It’s not illegal to fish for sturgeon, but most sturgeon fisheries are catch-and-release. Fishers can only legally keep sturgeon if they catch them during legal retention seasons, the release said.
Older sturgeon are especially important, the release said. Sturgeon don’t reach breeding age until they’re around 20 years old, and they can live to be 100 years old or even older. Older female sturgeon can produce ten times the eggs that younger ones can, and may carry hundreds of eggs, the release said.
“Sturgeon are a long-lived, slow-growing, and late-maturing species,” ODFW Columbia River program manager, Tucker Jones said in the release. “They already face numerous ecological, environmental, and other human-caused challenges on the road to recovery—poaching, especially of adult over-size sturgeon, is a huge issue.”
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