60,000 Sturgeon Having a Party Beneath Bonneville Dam?
By Tom Chandler on May 16, 2008 in Underground Entertainment
For those of us who were traumatized by the movie Jaws (why do you think I fish for trout), the idea of 60,000 monster sturgeon in one slithering group below Bonneville Dam makes for a pretty compelling image (Cue the ominous sea creature music).Story and video from Oregon Live:
When sonar surveys spotted a vast pile of rubble in the Columbia River below Bonneville Dam late last winter, officials suddenly worried part of the dam structure was eroding into the river.
Thousands of sturgeon - some 14 feet long - mass below Bonneville Dam in this video frame from a remotely operated submersible sent down to investigate what was first thought to be a pile of rubble. The “Mighty 86th Beavers” on the screen refers to the Army dive team operating the submersible, and the number 55.2 is the water depth in feet.
“Everybody said, ‘Oh my gosh, we need to get divers out there right away,’” recalled Dennis Schwartz, a fisheries biologist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees the dam.
What they found below the spillways in February was not a giant pile of rock at all, but a humongous pile of thousands upon thousands of sturgeon - some of them 14 feet long or longer - lounging together in frigid water at the bottom of the river.
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the Columbia…
Eduardo Sanchez | May 16, 2008 | Reply
Does sturgeon attack people?
Tom Chandler | May 16, 2008 | Reply
Not yet, though in the movie version, you can bet they will…
Larry Nash | May 16, 2008 | Reply
A Sturgeon weighing nearly 600 lbs. was caught in the Fraser River near Vancouver a few years ago: I’ve no idea of the length of that one.
Sturgeon are the source of caviar, and are said to be very fine eating as well. They’d better be - at 14 feet in length you’ll be eating it for quite a while!.
Sturgeon fishing afficianadoes are said to be a lowly, slothful, lethargic lot, prone to drinking and playing cards near their anchored rods until a fish bites,(sounds good to me!). Hey it’s not trout fishing! The fight that then ensues to land the behemoth is one of epic effort and duration.(But then we’ve all told stories like that).
Fly fishing is not used for sturgeon, but I suppose that the discovery of this resource at Bonneville will lead some to try it. Anyone out there working on a pattern to imitate a rotting cabbage?
Tight lines.
thebigandyt | May 19, 2008 | Reply
Rotting cabbage? should be easy, most of my attempts look like that already.