think of a whole bunch of walleye fishermen who would agree with me." world class fisheries in the Detroit River and St. But Jason Fischer, one of the other scientists on the boat, says the Detroit River's water has vastly improved in recent decades. The decline is largely due to overfishing and habitat destruction. Scientists now believe there are fewer than 7,000. In the 19th century it's estimated there were more than half a million sturgeon swimming in the Detroit River. Scientists believe the fish is a female and at least 100 years old.Īfter taking a photo of the fish lying next to one of the crew members for scale, scientists tagged the sturgeon with a microchip and released it back into the river. The river monster wasn't just large, it was a record-setting giant weighing in at 240 pounds and measuring nearly 7 feet long with a girth of nearly 4 feet. "That's when it really sunk in how large this fish was," she says. She adds that when the crew all worked together, they were finally able to get the fish onto the deck of the boat. "All of the sudden, this gray and white shadow came to the surface, and for about 5 to 8 minutes we struggled to try to get the fish into the net," Wigren recalls. Before arriving to check on the fourth line, scientist Paige Wigren says, the biggest thing hauled in was a 5-gallon plastic bucket. They were setting up fishing lines as part of their annual survey of the lake sturgeon population. Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office in Alpena, Mich. Last Thursday started out like any other day on the Detroit River for three scientists with the U.S. The sturgeon was tagged with a microchip and released back into the river. Fish and Wildlife Service survey crew, lies down beside a massive lake sturgeon that was pulled from the Detroit River last week.
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