April 17, 2014 — A landowner along the Delaware River near a scenic overlook a few miles north of Easton made an unusual discovery over the weekend.
According to Greg Murphy, a fisheries biologist with the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, a 75-inch-long carcass of an Atlantic sturgeon was found on the Pennsylvania banks of the Delaware River.
"It's an interesting find for this area of the river," Murphy said. "Many sturgeon researchers that have been working for a study on the river are surprised to see one this early in the spring. It was a mature adult, which makes it unusual for these parts."
Murphy said that the size of the fish is what is so unusual this far north on the Delaware. Like the American shad, sturgeon are anadromous fish, that is, they are born in freshwater rivers and migrate out to the ocean before coming back to their native waters to spawn.
The regional spawning grounds for Atlantic sturgeon, one of the oldest fish species in existence, is thought to be near Chester. This particular Atlantic sturgeon was found at approximately Mile 189 from the mouth of the Delaware Bay.
Atlantic sturgeon have been considered an endangered species in Pennsylvania for a number of years, and were added to the federal list in April 2013.
The fish was last abundant in the Delaware in the 1800s, but the population collapsed due to overfishing and industrial use of the river.
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