DETROIT (AP) – That’s a Whopper – a very old Whopper!
A 240-pound sturgeon, which could be more than 100 years old, was recently caught in the Detroit River by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The “real river monster” was almost 3 meters long, the agency announced on Facebook, where the photo was shared more than 24,000 times on the day it was published.
“Because of its girth and size, it is believed that this is a woman and that she has been in our waters for over 100 years. She was quickly released back into the river, ”said the fish and wildlife service after she was weighed and measured.
The typical lifespan of a male sturgeon is 55 years and women 70 to 100 years, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
This fish was caught near Grosse Ile, south of Detroit, on April 22nd while a crew of three was conducting an annual sturgeon study. Frozen round goby, a tasty snack for a sturgeon, was used as bait on a long line that lay deep in the river.
It took about six minutes to get the fish into the boat with a net.
“I felt the fish tap on the line. As it got closer, it got bigger, ”said Jason Fischer, who was with biologists Paige Wigren and Jennifer Johnson.
Wigren remembered thinking, “Yeah, this is going to be a really good fish story.”
“She was tired and didn’t fight us very much,” said Wigren. “Imagine everything the fish went through and saw.”
Lake sturgeon is listed as an endangered species in Michigan. Anglers can keep one per year, but only if the fish is a certain size and caught in some state waters. All sturgeon caught in the Detroit River must be released.
