
Sturgeon Pics
#4
Guest_Amazon_*
Posted 14 May 2009 - 04:22 PM
Between those pictures and a story one of my high school teachers had about being hit with a jellyfish at 40 mph...I'm not sure I'll ever be brave enough to water ski.
Great captures, someone has a really good reaction time there.
Great pics. We have gulf sturgeons over here in the tangipahoa river, although ive never seen them fly out of the water like that.
#6
Guest_jim graham_*
Posted 14 May 2009 - 08:33 PM
I suspect those were all fish that had been hooked after seeing the picture with the boat in it.Awesome: http://www.riggsphot...m/Nature/710401
The second page is even better. I wonder where this was?
Todd
#9
Guest_sschluet_*
Posted 18 May 2009 - 08:26 PM
My main interest is nature photography, with particular emphasis on the osprey, eagles and Atlantic sturgeon that are found in abundance in the Kennebec River Valley, near my home in Augusta, Maine. Sturgeon, you ask? No, I don't go scuba diving for them in the murky depths of the river; instead, I attempt to photograph them as they leap energetically out of the water during the several weeks of summer when they're active in this area. Why do they perform these acrobatics? Nobody knows for sure - maybe to dislodge parasites from their skin, maybe it's a mating ritual, or maybe they do it just because they can! Whatever the reason, it's a challenge to focus the camera on them and press the shutter release during the one or two seconds that they're airborne. If I'm really lucky, I might even get a photo of one of those huge fish jumping into someone's boat - someone else's boat, I mean! One time when I was kayaking on the Kennebec River near downtown Augusta, a five foot long sturgeon rocketed into the air within ten feet of my boat and plunged back into the water with a tremendous splash! Certainly it was much too close to get a photo with the medium telephoto I was using.
#12
Guest_bflowers_*
Posted 19 May 2009 - 04:05 AM
That's neat! In Wisconsin, Sturgeon are thought to jump to dislodge parasitic lampreys from their flesh. Paddlefish do this also. I didn't see any lampreys in the photos, though. Hmmm.
Brian
Great pictures and I didn't even know Sturgeons were jumpers.
Bill F.
#15
Guest_sschluet_*
Posted 19 May 2009 - 10:14 PM
At a recent sturgeon symposium it was mentioned that sturgeon breach and splash to attract mates.
Here is the reference that Fritz suggested. The authors suggest "communication" but they do not exclude other hypotheses.
http://www3.intersci...l...=1&SRETRY=0
The external parasite hypothesis doesn't jive from my experience in NY, the young sea lamprey occurrence on captured sturgeon increases throughout the duration of summer. Most jumping activity is in the spring; if this behavior were to explain a response to parasites, we would observe more jumping later in the year. I have seen up to 8 young sea lampreys (7-9 inches long) on a single adult sturgeon. The young lampreys don't appear to do much damage (usually just a reddish area, no deep open sores); this might be a result of the small lampreys weak feeding abilities and the sturgeons scalation (much different than the soft belly of a lake trout).
My recommendation is full motocross (w/ helmet/neck brace) while travelling at any speed on the water in the June : ) Especially if you are on the Suwannee River in FL (the authors in the above reference recorded 1000 jumps in a day!).
EDIT - type "sturgeon strikes" into google....I didn't realize gulf sturgeon-human interactions were that prevalent....
Edited by sschluet, 19 May 2009 - 10:20 PM.
#16
Guest_NateTessler13_*
Posted 20 May 2009 - 06:57 AM
Edited by NateTessler13, 20 May 2009 - 06:58 AM.
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