Volunteers rescue massive sturgeon after it runs aground in receding BC floodwaters

Two-kilometer hard work, partly on land, carrying a 45-kilogram fish

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As rescuers and volunteers worked to the point of exhaustion to restore order to farms and properties in the Fraser Valley, two members of a local fishing association tirelessly carried a huge white sturgeon in a sling around water up to the thighs, carrying it alternately over three stretches of dry land, to bring it home. It had been washed out of the Fraser River and washed up in a shallow pool as the flood receded.

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The fish was two meters long, had a circumference of 81 cm and weighed 45 kilograms.

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According to the CBC, the sturgeon was first sighted by a helicopter crew flying near Herrling Island in B.C. between Hope and Agassiz on Thursday. They sent a video to the Fraser Valley Angling Guides Association, which then enlisted members Tyler Buck and Jay Gibson “on a capture and release mission like no other.”

Professional sturgeon guides, they were in the area “picking up debris and littering… when the call came in,” said Kevin Estrada, director of FVAGA. “They were obviously very happy to be able to help in any way.”

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The duo not only helped the fish but, along with other members and organizations, had provided assistance to affected communities and the watershed by helping evacuate people, making LifeLab deliveries, working as a medical taxi service from emergency, as well as sandbagging and pump control.

This sturgeon was a young adult, at maybe 25 years old – it can reach 3.5 meters and in the right conditions it can live 100 years or more. Sturgeons are among the oldest marine species in the world, with fossils dating back 200 million years, and have retained many of their characteristics largely unchanged. It has no scales and a body that looks bony, although it is mostly made up of cartilage. They are bottom eaters, locating food by dragging four sensory barbels and sucking up small marine life from the riverbed. Their primary habitat is found in river deltas like the Fraser River, but they are also able to survive in salt water.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature has declared that 85% of the 27 sturgeon species are threatened with extinction, due to habitat destruction, pollution and overfishing (mainly for its highly valuable eggs. ).