The Sturgeon Conundrum

Ivan Seeking

http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingn...river_stu.html

hypatia

A sturgeon party and we were not invited?

turbo

Auditioning for the chance to be a PF greeter!

hypatia

My husband has informed me of his sighting of masses of sturgeon in the Grand River, here in MI. Nothing anywhere near that amount, but he said perhaps several hundred, and noted its a much smaller river.
I wonder if the PF insurance would cover a injury due to a sturgeon wack?

turbo

I would be more concerned about the PF sisters blowing out their disks even just trying to pick up one of those monsters. Some of the largest can easily grow to thousands of pounds.

Ivan Seeking

Interesting! We have a second account of behavior that apparently was previously unknown to science.

lisab

My first thought was of garter snakes, who gather in large groups for mating.

Phrak

Grasshopper. What is the sound of one sturgeon swarming?

by the way, Im on th look-out for recipes for sturgeon ball soup.

matthyaouw

Was it entirely unknown? The article gave the impression the behaviour had been seen before, just not on this scale

"Biologists have heard reports of congregations of sturgeon at the surface of reservoirs and rivers, including shallow parts of the Columbia."

Ivan Seeking

Sure enough. The report I saw made it sound like a complete mystery and I didn't read the entire report linked.

Ivan Seeking

And hippies.

Moonbear

Several things popped into my mind as possibilities when reading the article:
1) Mating (not sure what's known about sturgeon mating and if this could be part of it).
2) Safety in numbers while dormant or hibernating of some sort.
3) Some sort of insulation from colder water temperatures...at least for those in the middle.
4) Don't know how to swim through the dam but sure are trying.

I'd love to see some of the pictures of the sturgeon ball.