Last week, conservationists at the Hudson River Estuary Program (HREP) in New York hooked a massive, monstrous-looking fish less than 100 miles outside of Manhattan. The creepy find was announced in a Facebook post Wednesday by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation NYS DEC).
Officials discovered that the gigantic catch was an Atlantic sturgeon measuring six feet and weighing an astonishing 220 pounds.
Last week, during an Atlantic sturgeon survey, Hudson River Estuary Program fisheries staff captured a suspected female that was over 6 ft long & weighed ~220 lbs! It was captured under a National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) endangered species research permit, #20340. pic.twitter.com/gRN7xtPefV
— New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation (@NYSDEC) June 26, 2024
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) classifies Atlantic sturgeon as critically endangered. They are anadromous fish, meaning they nominally live in salt water but move to fresh water when it comes time to reproduce. Migratory patterns take them from Florida to Maine, and this time of the year they are known to be particularly prominent in the Hudson River.
HREP employees believe the one they caught to be a female which hasn’t yet spawned. The officials took photos, scanned the fish for tags, and measured its height and weight before re-releasing it into the water.
Estuary workers used a net to catch the fish humanely, which was accomplished with a research permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service. “This annual survey, which started in 2006, is conducted over the course of several weeks in May and June and is used to track trends in the Atlantic sturgeon population,” the NYS DEC explained.
Though the 220-pound, six foot Atlantic sturgeon caught by HREP staff might seem gigantic, it’s actually on the smaller side for the species. Some can grow up to 14 feet long and weigh as much as 800 pounds. Still, the Atlantic is the largest species of sturgeon found in New York, which is home to two other breeds—the lake sturgeon, and the shortnose sturgeon.
