Imagine showing up in prison and saying you were in for hustling Sturgeon.
When it’s put like that, it sounds even more stupid then it seems on the surface…
Sturgeon are one of the coolest fish species around, some of the oldest fish to roam the waters and so prehistoric in looks that you can’t help but be interested in everything about them. It’s safe to say all sturgeon garner attention wherever they are spotted.
So, naturally when I hear a story about someone poaching or harming one of these creatures, I can’t help but hope to the high heavens they are caught and put in the slammer. Poachers are dirt bags…
Beyond Sturgeon being known for their size and cool looks, certain species also produce world class caviar. This creates a poaching issue, sadly.
California Department of Fish and Wildlife says that a car was stopped with a 7-foot sturgeon stuffed into the trunk. Eight people were arrested in the events. The officers involved had been investigating for over a year.
That’s the big time in the sturgeon game… a full year to bring down eight people over a caviar ring.
That is some crazy stuff right there. But it gets better, it always does.
The fish was still alive when they made the arrest!
The officers were quick to act when they realized and tried to save it. Officer Captain Patrick Foy summed it all the wild events well to Rolling Stone explaining the sturgeon’s situation when they found it.
“They found this giant behemoth sturgeon in the back of the guy’s hatchback, just folded in there.
Because it was so big, the head of the sturgeon was pushed up against the driver’s seat. The whole fish was bent so it could fit into the trunk.
They arrested the driver and went to the nearest source of water they could find.”
This is why wildlife officers rock. Foy explained how they tried to aid the fish in surviving.
“They keep it upright and rock it back and forth. They keep it oxygenated so it can gain the strength and ultimately swim away on its own.
He wasn’t out of the water for a long time.”
Thankfully, we have these officers looking out for this. But how many did they miss them before they got on their tracks?
Let’s hope this outweighs the benefits of the black market for sturgeon so we can continue to have this long-lived species for centuries more.
