fishing planet unique white sturgeon california

Of the 27 extant sturgeon species in the world, those in the Bay (and other self-sustaining populations in Oregon and Washington) are doing the best.

Armored with bony scutes, not scales, they have been swimming in global river systems since before T-Rex. Sturgeon are often referred to as living fossils. “There are old ones out there, but it’s really hard to give a number because we just don’t have it,” says John Kelly, statewide sturgeon coordinator for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW). While one white sturgeon caught in the Columbia River Basin was estimated to be 104 years old, the life expectancy of white sturgeon, Acipenser transmontanus, which includes the Central Valley population endemic to the San Francisco Bay, is hard to pin down. A 90-year-old Australian lungfish at San Francisco’s Academy of Sciences has received a lot of press lately, but there is a wild fish species living in the San Francisco Bay that has the potential to live that long or longer - or so we think.

Fishing planet unique white sturgeon california