All The Fish

Sturgeon Snoots and Scutes

Living Dinosaurs of the Pacific Coast

3 men holding a large sturgeon by a boat
An adult White Sturgeon held boat-side in the Snake River. 📷 Ken Lepla/Idaho Power Company
a man holds a small sturgeon on a boat
A young White Sturgeon. 📷 Laura Heironimus/Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife

“Sturgeon get themselves into all sorts of interesting places.”

Big, Old Fish

If that’s not enough, sturgeon were swimming on this earth over 200 million years — they’re living dinosaurs.

Sturgeon snoots

Underside of a white sturgeon’s snout
mouth of a white sturgeon
The vacuum end of a large White Sturgeon on the Columbia River. 📷 Katrina Liebich
top of a sturgeon snout
White Sturgeon snout from above. 📷 Katrina Liebich

Sturgeon scutes

young sturgeon with sharp scutes
Sharp scutes on a young Columbia River White Sturgeon. 📷 Katrina Liebich
up close look at sturgeon scutes
Gulf Sturgeon scutes. 📷 USFWS/Ryan Hagerty

Vulnerable

Green sturgeon on a measuring board
Biologists prepare to measure a Green Sturgeon before returning it to the river. 📷 Laura Heironimus/Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
sturgeon in the water from above
White Sturgeon. 📷 USDA/NRCS

Fishing for sturgeon

angler with a sturgeon from above
White Sturgeon caught with a whole shad and to be released. 📷 Courtesy of Katrina Liebich

“I’ve seen shad fishermen put all their shad on a stringer and one big sturgeon will come up and suck down the whole stringer and swim off with it.”

“I’ve known more than one angler who‘s been tail slapped by a sturgeon.”

a sturgeon swimming away
A White Sturgeon shows off its powerful heterocercal tail. 📷 Katrina Liebich

Green or White?

men holding a sturgeon in the water
Fish biologists measure a White Sturgeon then release it. 📷 Ken Lepla/Idaho Power Company

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Stories from Alaska by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

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