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A mysterious gathering of large white sturgeon within a small area inside San Francisco Bay has baffled scientists but pleased sport anglers who like to fish for the prehistoric-looking behemoths.
White sturgeon, which can grow to nearly 20 feet and weigh in excess of 1,500 pounds, are typically elusive but have become easy pickings because thousands have massed within San Pablo Bay, a vast tidal estuary north of the main bay.
The congregation has perplexed scientists, who are associating the phenomenon with above-normal rainfall and runoff, but are unable to state precisely why so many of these mysterious fish -- the largest freshwater fish in North America -- have gotten together in one location. |
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The Marin Independent Journal, quoting biologists, reports that in heavy rainfall years sturgeon typically travel much farther inland, beyond the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta into the Sacramento River, for a spawning season that occurs between December and June. That's where scientists would have expected most large sturgeon to be now.
One biologist, Michael Thomas of the University of California at Davis, said it was possible that abundant rainfall triggered an early spawn and that "what we're seeing is a large congregation of post-spawn fish in San Pablo Bay."
Keith Fraser, a veteran angler and owner of San Rafael bait shop, believes all the rain "pushed" the sturgeon downriver. |
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