LAKE CITY, FL (WTXL) -- It's summer time in Florida and the perfect time to take the boat out on the water. But the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission wants you to be careful about some rather large fish that like to jump out of the water.
A Lake City woman escaped serious injury Memorial Day weekend when a sturgeon collided with her boat on the Santa Fe River. Cynthia Graves was hit by the fish as it jumped out of the water, but most of the damage was done to her pontoon boat.
“The only damage to the boat was the broken windshield,” FWC Officer Kyle Pekerol said. “The fish flopped out of the boat and back into the water.”
This is the first reported strike in two years, said the FWC. “Please don’t think this can’t happen to you. If you are recreating on the rivers during the summer months, there’s a good chance you could encounter a sturgeon jumping out of the water,” said said Maj. Andy Krause, commander for the FWC’s North Central Region in Lake City.
These collisions aren’t attacks, warn FWC. The fish aren’t targeting boaters, they are just doing what they have been doing for millions of years: jumping. Researchers have discovered sturgeon jump for two reasons: to fill their swim bladders to maintain neutral buoyancy and to communicate with other fish, said the FWC.
Biologists estimate the annual population of sturgeon in the Suwannee River to be between 10,000-14,000 fish, averaging 40 pounds. However, a few exceed 170 pounds. They can leap more than 7 feet out of the water. To add to the seriousness of being hit by one, the fish have five rows of armor-like scutes.
For more information about Gulf sturgeon, go to MyFWC.com/Research and click on “Saltwater” then “Sturgeon.”
