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Fish get shot at comeback
By LINDA GIBSON © St. Petersburg Times, published November 16, 2000 TAMPA -- Robert Wilhelm rolled up his pants legs, grasped a 2-foot-long gulf sturgeon in both hands and waded barefoot into the Hillsborough River. He lowered the fish into the water and held it gently, giving it time to realize it no longer was confined to a water tank on the back of a pickup truck. At 70 degrees, the river must have felt just right. To the fish, anyway. It flapped its fins up and down, swayed its tail a few times as if checking its equipment, then disappeared. Thus was the gulf sturgeon, a species threatened with extinction and unseen in the Hillsborough River for more than 100 years, returned to the chilly waters at the Hillsborough River State Park near Thonotosassa. Wilhelm, the park manager, had the honor of putting the first of 48 sturgeon into the river as the start of a one-year pilot project to see how well they do. The goal is to see whether the Hillsborough once again can support a population of the fish. The gulf species can grow to 6 feet in length and weigh up to 150 pounds. They have no skeletons or scales, covered instead by plates made of cartilage that give them an armored look. Although native to the gulf coast states, gulf sturgeon haven't been seen in Florida south of the Suwannee River since the 1880s. They have survived almost unchanged for 225-million years, since before the dinosaurs. But pollution, dams and overfishing killed them off around here in the blink of an eye. In 1886 and 1887, commercial fisherman caught 3,400 gulf sturgeon in Tampa Bay, said Scott Willis, spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. In 1888, they caught eight. Wilhelm was pleased to welcome the newcomers. "Having a threatened species here means more protection for the park and the river," he said. "Parks are becoming islands. The city and suburbs are moving closer and closer." Scientists at the Florida Marine Research Institute in St. Petersburg equipped each of the fish with two forms of identification: a microchip of the type used in dogs and cats, and a transmitter that broadcasts an acoustic signal at a different frequency for each fish. Volunteers will cruise the river at intervals, tracking the fish with a receiver that turns the signals into numbers on a computer screen. That will tell them which fish have survived the alligators, where in the river the fish hang out and whether they've migrated into Tampa Bay for the winter. Signs will be posted along the river warning fishermen not to take the sturgeon, which are protected by federal law. Gulf sturgeon are one of 27 sturgeon species, all native to the Northern Hemisphere. Sturgeon territories include China, Russia and Iran, as well as the United States and Canada. They are famed for their eggs, which become high-priced caviar, and for their boneless flesh. Sturgeon can live up to 40 years. They are bottom feeders, sucking larvae, mollusks, shrimp and worms up into a toothless mouth located on the underside of the head. A cold-water fish, they alternate between saltwater and fresh, holing up near freshwater springs during the summer as a refuge from the heat. When fall arrives, they swim out into a bay or gulf as that water cools, reversing the cycle followed by manatees which head to warmer river waters in the fall. In the spring, sturgeon return to the river in which they were born to spawn. The fish released Wednesday are only 2 years old. They won't be able to mate until the age of 7 or 8. When they're ready, they certainly won't be able to return to the state hatchery in landbound Blountstown, west of Tallahassee, where they were raised. Accustomed to hatchery tanks, some of the fish seemed a little hesitant about swimming off into the open waters of the river. "At first, they stayed motionless," marine institute scientist Dan Roberts said of the last three to go into the river. "They seemed to be disoriented. Then they swam in circles that got bigger and bigger, almost like a method for exploring a strange environment." A boneless fish
- Linda Gibson can be reached at (813) 226-3382 or gibson@sptimes.com.
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