From local KARE11 News
SEYMOUR, Wis. – Most humans will tell you they’ve taken a wrong turn or two in their lives.
A spawning sturgeon in Wisconsin had the same experience, but it almost cost her life.
Wardens for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) were dispatched to wardens was dispatched to Seymour, where the large sturgeon had taken a wrong turn and ended up in Black Creek, roughly 25 miles away from the rest of its friends.
After being notified by police DNR Conservation Warden Mike Young who pulled together a crew and headed to the site.
Young and his fellow wardens found the fish in the stream, with the water level quickly dropping due to a natural dam. The sturgeon was floundering had nowhere to go, so Young climbed into the creek and netted the large sturgeon. It was so big that all three wardens and a police officer had to pull the net and fish out of the water and carry her to a large tub in the back of Young’s truck.
“In my 20 years as a conservation warden, I have never seen a fish take a wrong turn and end up like this,” said Young. “She traveled up the Wolf River, into the Shioc River, and ended up in the Black Creek. It’s strange for her to be so far away from the rest of the group, but we’re glad to have gotten her to where she needed to be.”
Young took the female sturgeon to Shiocton where fisheries staff assisted in handling her. The sturgeon measured a whopping 72 inches, weighed an estimated 100 pounds and was full of eggs, ready for spawning.
DNR personnel also checked her for an implanted tag biologists use to identify individual fish. This sturgeon didn’t have one, so they implanted a tag and recorded her information. She was then released back into the Wolf River to join the rest of the spawning sturgeon population.
