What creature looks like a stegosaurus, can weigh over 300 pounds and lives in the Hudson River?
Amanda Higgs is a fishery biologist with the Department of Environmental Conservation Hudson River Estuary Program. She directs an Atlantic Sturgeon research project that is trying to ensure the fishes survival.
 Amanda learned how to catch Atlantic Sturgeon from commercial fisherman who use to catch sturgeon before the moratorium began in 1998.
This fish has been caught in a net 300 feet long and strung on a 60 foot rope so it can lie on the bottom of the river. The nets are pulled during slack tide. Crew members free the fish from the net and then attach a noose around the tail and upper body. Here 2 crew member are lifting the sturgeon into the holding tank on the boat.
Atlantic Sturgeon have been around for over 120 million years and can live for more than 60 years. Instead of scales, they have 5 rows of bony plates called scutes. They grow to be between 6 to 8 feet and weigh around 250 pounds. | |
 Once in the boat, crew members work quickly to weigh, measure and identify the gender of the fish.
Here Amanda is surgically implanting a sonic tag so that the fishes movements can be tracked. The Atlantic Sturgeon are an anadromous fish - they spend most of their life in the ocean and spawn in the river. The research project is determining when the fish return to the Hudson and where they are spawning so their habitat can be protected.
 The Atlantic sturgeon are bottom feeders. They use their long, hard snout to dig in the mud and their toothless mouth to suck up crustaceans, insects and mollusks. The four whisker like projections called barbels are used as feelers to help locate food.
 And....
Amanda Higgs sturgeon tatoo! |
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