Tuesday December 8, 2009
Sturgeon are growing increasingly rare along the West Coast, especially in the San Joaquin Basin, the southern extent of their range. We estimate that this fish is about 7 feet long and was captured with a DIDSON acoustic camera in the San Joaquin River. Unfortunately, YouTube video resolution is lower than the actual DIDSON video, so the initial view of the large sturgeon is difficult to see.
This video consists of two segments spliced together. The sturgeon can first be seen swimming left to right 11 meters out at the top right portion of the video. The second part of the video is much clearer and the sturgeon swims into view at the 6-meter mark. Other, smaller unidentified fish can also be seen in the video.
Historically, two species of sturgeon occurred in California. The green sturgeon was federally listed as threatened in 2006. White sturgeon are not listed, but the American Fisheries Society considers their survival dependent on conservation measures taken to protect them.
We captured this white sturgeon on video a few months ago.