FWS Sturgeon Trip!

My last week with the Fish and Wildlife Service was probably my favorite of the whole internship. My mentor, Glenn Constant, sent me to the Fish and Wildlife Service conservation office in Panama City, Florida. On Tuesday, we drove out to the Escambia River to do telemetry work with the Gulf Sturgeon.

We set three-gill nets in the middle of the river for about 45 minute time periods to catch the sturgeon. After the 45 minutes are up we would pull in the nets and we would place the sturgeon that we caught in the wet well that was filled with river water. After we were done pulling up the nets and setting them back out, we would park the boat on the side of the river. We would individually tag each of the sturgeon by placing an avid chip in the meaty area of their top dorsal fin. Then we would place tags on each of their pectoral fins and take their weight and length. After we were done tagging them, we would have to throw them back in the river to make sure they didn’t float back up to the top of the river. Gulf sturgeon do not have a swimbladder, so if they breathe in the open air when we are tagging them, they will float to the top. In order for us to get the air out of their bladders, we would have to tap the air out. This doesn’t hurt the sturgeon at all because their scales are like a strong armor around their bodies. We set nets and tagged sturgeon for about four to five hours, and in that time period we caught and tagged seven sturgeons.   

A picture of four of the Gulf Sturgeon we caught in the live well. We were measuring the largest sturgeon we had caught from that round. 

A picture of me and the smallest sturgeon we caught. The scale behind me is the way that we measured their weight.

A picture of me and the largest Gulf Sturgeon that we caught, which ended up weighing about 50 pounds. 

This internship has been one of the best experiences of my life. I have gotten to meet so many people and do so many things that I would have never had the opportunity to do if it weren’t for this program. I am so grateful to have had this experience and I will remember it for the rest of my life.