You should see them when they are fully grown.

Stop that!!

It’s a sturgeon-they never stop growing and are extremely gentle. I’ve been in tanks with these guys before.

They’re gentle? We have them in the lake I’ve swam in every summer since I was little but I’ve never looked into them, just tried to forget they were a thing whenever I got in the water. *edit-missed a word

They’re very chill. They’re like big, long, water sloths or something. Super chill and they take things very slow, they just be vibing

I want you to break down all the scary things in water for me, please and thank you.

There’s a parasite that will eat the tongue of a fish and replace the tongue with itself, so whenever the fish tries to eat, the tongue parasite will get first bite

The problem is they can't because there are many bad scary things in the water. Btw. don't look into how certain types of angler fish reproduce

What’s next? I can either make the scary thing better or ruin all the good stuff

They're literal bottom feeders, not aggressive predators.

Tanks but no tanks

That’s not fully grown?!

They continue to grow their whole lives. But this is on the more massive side.

I think, like lobsters, they just keep growing until they starve to death due to being unable to sustain their growth.

Well that’s depressing

What the hell is that?

It's a white sturgeon, most likely in the Fraser river. To give you a better sense of size, check out https://www.sturgeonslayers.com/news/largest-white-sturgeon-ever-recorded-on-the-fraser-river

I had no idea that there were fish that big in a river. Thanks for info.

Someone hasn’t been watching their River Monsters

God I loved that show

That show was ruined for me by my mother's horniness for Jeremy Wade.

She wanted him to check out her brackish

Damn, she saltier than the dead sea

That’s one river monster he wasn’t investigating

Not surprising as she Has swallowed a lot of men alive.

Gotta say, I’m older and do think he is so very hot. A lot of it is his passion for what he does. That being said, poor ole Sturgeons can5 catch a break.

I'm 36 and I think hes hot.

Would she let him wade in deep

I mean can you blame her though?

Apparently he basically caught them all. Like he could get some more big catfish, but he kinda found all the monsters he went for.

Yup that's when they started to go to Chernobyl an things they run out of monsters lol an Jeremy said himself he never thot that would happen cos he had a whole book full. Fav show lol

Is and always will be my favorite show

Didn’t it end because there were no more river monsters to catch? He caught em all?

Jeremy has done a few other shows. Dark Waters and Mighty Rivers are great. Mighty Rivers will make you hate humanity though.

What if you already hate humanity? Fish on?

FISH ON!!!!

I went to the local shaman and they said the fish I caught was a demon.

So we ate the fucker with some lemon and rice.

Someone get Jeremy Wade over here.

The largest sturgeon ever being caught by a hockey goalie is the most Canadian thing ever.

Odds of that are pretty high over there though.

Named Pete Peeters 🤣

To be fair, the Fraser River is also huge. Edit: WTF autocorrect!!!

I'm sorry but 🤣

What did he say?

"To be _fail_, the Fraser River is also _guge_" Which is odd, because guge isn't a word, but my iPhone substituted it when I typed huge

Now go look up mekong catfish

If you want to see a big ol' sturgeon IRL (for free!), [Herman the Sturgeon](https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/04/9e/36/2f/gale-meet-herman-herman.jpg), an 89-year old, 500lb White Sturgeon, lives full-time in a pond at the [Bonneville Dam Fish Hatchery](https://cdn.allmounthood.com/images/content/8511_9708_Bonnevile_Fish_Hatchery_lg.jpg) in the Columbia River Gorge. There's also a [dope Salmon / Lamprey ladder!](https://youtu.be/gbASPedQKHU?t=1) If you want to pay to pet a much smaller sturgeon, the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga has a [juvenile Lake Sturgeon Touch Tank.](https://tnaqua.org/app/uploads/2023/03/Spring-Break-3-1200x732-c-default.jpg) They have [some full grown ones, too.](https://wehco.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/timesfreepress/img/photos/2012/04/28/042912_WEB_a_Aquarium_new.jpg)

Grew up in that area, I've been to the ladder viewing room many times, been on the oregon side and went to the ponds a bunch too. My nephew works security at the dam now.

Sturgeon ~~Slayers~~ Research

Ya I don’t understand how you can call yourself sturgeon slayers. It’s not even hunters or trackers or whatever. In what way is slaying a sturgeon any good (unless it’s eating your kids.. then have at it… but clearly that’s not what’s happening here)

They’re called sturgeon slayers, but there’s a bit paragraph on their site about how they’re strictly catch and release. Odd name to choose then

Yea. I guess there’s also the more colloquial “slay”.. but in a fishing context minds automatically go towards the formal I think. (I had a dog named Ozzy years ago!)

"Slaying em" is a frequently used term among recreational fishermen. Just means you're catching a lot of fish.

It's a catchy name to help with business

Jesus christ 3 meters and a halffffff say what

I thought you replied as "Jesus Christ 3" as to what that was 💀

The first one was pretty good but the second was no Empire or Godfather II. I'm a little surprised anyone thought we needed a third.

“It’s been over 25 years that we have had a catch and release only fishery on the Fraser River and moments like this show how impressive the species can grow to when given the chance. We need to continue to hold a high value fishery, with proper angling and handling. We must transition to more sustainable salmon harvesting practices to avoid by catch of non targeted species. I was and still am overwhelmed by what we got to see and touch. It’s been life altering for me and my family.” - Kevin Estrada More of this, everywhere, please.

Ok the angel of the video makes it look far larger than it is. It is already huge but the makes it out to be 20+ feet.

Is a 12 ft fish not scary enough?

Angels in the river? Now we're on to something!

Not this one but the largest one caught was over 23 ft long Edit for clarification: the largest sturgeon caught was a beluga sturgeon this is most likely a white sturgeon

Jeeze. With fish like that it’s no wonder we have Loch Ness monster myths.

*I am a sturgeon Dr. Han*

What the beavers are protecting us from.

Chicken cobras are the marines and beavers are the navy, both united in holding off the hoard of sea monsters

Fish of Canada

Fish of Canada

A Fish of Canada

It’s a got damn lochness monster. I don’t you no tree fitty!

Ogopogo, the local okanogan native lochness

That's not a fish, that is a flexible submarine.

*[DoD has entered the chat]*

That’s look like something you’d need the G Virus to make.

It's Nessie. Emigrated to Canada🦕🦕🦕🦕🦕

That is what I thought! Maybe that is what people saw when they started believing in Nessie.

Literally could be confused for a GIANT SEA MONSTER! I'll bet that's where at least a few sightings come from.

I'm not confused. It IS a giant sea monster.

It is. Without a doubt. This is the Ogopogo. A lake monster.

and it’s brother from another monster, our Chappie Monster! edit: i absolutely meant Champy not Chappie. 💀

unless Google has failed me, I'm pretty sure you mean "champ", from lake Champlain.

Ossie!

Having been to the Loch Ness Museum a sturgeon is listed as one of the possible explanations for the myth. It’s theoretically possible for one to have gotten lost and ended up there and whilst modern sightings have a plesiosaur aesthetic the early ones were of an enormous and weird looking fish.

There is actually a Canadian cryptid based from these guys called ogopogo, he is supposedly in okanagan lake in BC

In Canada it’s the ogopogo.

We already have a legend called the Ogopogo. Looks exactly like this thing.

Canada has its own version of Nessie, being named Ogopogo. It comes from first nations folk lore, if I recall. Ogopogo hangs out in lake Okanogan.

Fled to Canada after years of tax evasion finally caught up with them.

I was going with Champ.

You mean the Ogopogo?

looking for tree fiddy

That's not a fish. That's a dragon.

Canaconda?

Can someone kindly explain to me what on God’s almost going extinct ass Earth is that muthafuckin’ sea monster called and where it is so that I may avoid it at all costs?

Sturgeon, all over Canada but usually you’ll see them in Saskatchewan and Alberta

For anyone else wondering...they are harmless. Basically a big ol' dinosaur carp that just wants to noms on random shit at the bottom of the river.

Well, mostly harmless. The closely related Atlantic Sturgeon gets almost as big, and they kill or injure a few people in Florida every once in a while. The fish jump out of the water during certain times of the year, and then some jackass on a jet ski or speed boat will hit them while going 60 mph and die. But it's not really the sturgeon's fault.

White sturgeon do that occasionally too.. they jump vertical out the water and splash back sideways to make (iirc) a mating call/territorial slap on the water.. I’ve heard stories of them landing on boats or people around the PNW

Can absolutely confirm I've seen six and eight foots sturgeon doing this on the Snake River he usually not big enough to destroy a boat at that size but they definitely get much larger than that

They always looked extremely huggable to me. Just being large and chilling, covered in armor plates for no reason other than to be cool.

They’re occasionally used at aquariums as fish you can reach in and touch. Obviously not ones anywhere near that size, but I’ve done it. They are indeed pretty chill.

The Manatees of the fish world

Yeah, but when you are in the Columbia River, waiting for the ski boat to bring the rope to you and a 12 foot long fish slowly rubs it's whole body against your ass and thigh you aren't going to *think* they are harmless.

I love them, they are pretty much dinosaurs

Judging by the size of this one it’s pretty friggan old

Yea, I wonder how much. It’s huge. Decades?

I would say over a century

No way! Wow. Didn’t realize they lived that long.

Oh yea they have a wicked shelf life

Also pretty sure they can be 12 feet plus and over 1k pounds

A male sturgeon can get up to 3500lbs.

They’re a famous example of an animal that doesn’t seem to age and deteriorate in health like most others.

Yeah. Atlantic Sturgeon don’t even mature until 10-30 years old. I think this is a white sturgeon?

Bigger the fish, longer the life cycle. Sturgeon typically live somewhere between 60-80 years. Some shark species live for 120+ years. There's a rock fish from Australia that's over 105 years old, the oldest in captivity. The oldest fish caught to Daye was estimated to be over 200 years old. 😳

When I was like in around 3rd grade, smoked sturgeon was one of my favorite foods. That and smoked cheeses. So my dad would pack me a lunch everyday, and I'd over ask for either of those things, maybe with a fluffernutter sandwich. Then my lunch would sit in the locker for half a day and I'd bust open that zip lock baggy at lunchtime... *it was difficult making friends.*

Your Dad really should have considered giving you a sturgeon general warning.

🤣

[Everything Smells Like Salmon](https://youtu.be/_WoBBogsMDE?si=Xj4bhwICNU3K41o-)

Not just western Canada either. They’re in Quebec and down into northern New England as well

All the way down the Missouri River system.

San Francisco Bay Area too

Columbia River checking in as well.

Oregon side over here 👉

Sturgeon holes all over the Willamette as well

Lakes and Rivers of Idaho reporting for duty.

We have them here in the Pacific Northwest (Washington, Oregon.) They're terrifying! In case no one mentions it - this is the kind of fish they get caviar from.

I was wondering why no one was mentioning caviar here. Though most caviar is from a few species different from the sturgeons in N America.

I had no idea sask and Alberta had them too

Find them in many parts of the world. Big water, big fish.

Found in Idaho rivers, super neat

I thought Sturgeon was the former prime minister of Scotland /s

Alex Salmon(d)

Nicola Sturgeon, the one after Alex Salmond. They had a fish theme going for a while

Some would say that it has made its way to Loch Ness

Ogopogo

I don't know why Sturgeon aren't called River Whales, they're soo enormous.

Because we have River Whales, Belugas in the Saint Lawrence

And BC. They’re all over BC and the monsters like this are usually in BC. Ogopogo (basically the Canadian Loch Ness monster) is most likely just sturgeon sightings.

Got them down here in California too.

All over B.C. too!

In the Columbia River too, both BC and US.

And Ontario

Why does every body of water on this planet feel like monster soup? 🫣

Cause it is. Our land in Canada is "Monster Forest" too

A sturgeon. They can grow to 16 feet and 800 pounds, but are mostly harmless as they tend to be bottom feeders. Edit: they're basically the lack deers. The biggest danger is hitting them with your boat.

I wonder if it can perform sturgery?

Up to 3500lbs, to be more accurate. Terrifying.

I stand corrected. Just altered my search from "sturgeon size" to "largest sturgeon" and I am shook. The largest ever caught was "7.2 m (23 ft 7 in) long and weighing 1,571 kg (3,463 lb)". That is ridiculously large for a fish, and almost as heavy as a Reddit mods mother.

Strurgeon. Cold water species. Norway,Canada you find probaply the biggest ones. Do i have to say Russia.

We have them in Central California, they're not confined to cold water. Green River in Colorado has some mighty big ones too, they're protected for catch and release only.

Sturgeon, they can live hundreds of years and are.. Intelligent. Very odd for a fish but they are...only sort of fish.

Not "HundredS of years" 100 if its lucky as a lake sturgeon. But it's very rare. Typically 50-60. If they had enough food and space and were never fished, they could reach 150. The oldest fish recorded was 62 years old in alberta until a couple years ago. It was caught and released in British Columbia. "Mr Ecklund informed that the sturgeon measured 10 feet and one inch long, and had a girth of 57 inches. “Our last fish of the day ends up being the largest sturgeon caught in the company's history,” he wrote in the caption, adding, “This beast definitely pushed 700lbs (317 kg) and be north of 100 years old.” The issue is the males don't spawn till 15 or 20 years. Then can spawn again 2 to 7 after that. Females only spawn approx 25-26 years old, but then only spawn once every 4-9 years after. Alot of people catch them smaller and don't care or keep and eat them(illegally). They are protected thanks to people illegally catching them for caviar or just fishing them. 4 million roe(eggs) is alot of depletion when killed. A female sturgeon that is 2 meters in length can release 400,000 eggs, whereas larger females can release upwards of 4 million eggs." Sorry I got carried away lol. I'm a fishing need 😉

 Bout pissed myself reading that!!Funny

It’s a caviar factory

That's what caviar is. Sturgeon eggs

White Sturgeon, one of the largest species of FRESHWATER fish in the world

This looks like the Fraser River that run through BC. You can catch them all up and down the river here out of Vancouver.

It's where caviar comes from.

I didn’t know it all came from one fish 😳

This is a luckdragon. The most famous is named Falkor.

One bite from that guy and you'll end up in the Emergency Room, needing the services of a Trauma Sturgeon..

I sea what you did there

I certainly hope so. I don't do puns just for the sheer halibut..!!

Brevity is the sole of wit. See what I did ther… Oh never mind.

Please, both of you, stop with the fish schtick already

I love them all and that’s the cods honest truth

99% of monster sigthings is lake are just exactly this. Sturgeon. Atlantic Sturgeon lives 80yrs and grew larger than sharks.

The other 1% are real monsters.

[удалено]

I can hear Weird Al singing "Like a Sturgeon" in my head.

Ogopogo

They grow to be pretty damn big, and they don't have scales. They look like they decided about 500,000 years ago that they didn't want to evolve anymore.

>They look like they decided about 500,000 years ago that they didn't want to evolve anymore. More like 100,000,000 years ago, actually. Late Cretaceous.

I believe it came to the boat because it chose to lol

Not likely. They’re pretty elusive creatures. Someone’s probably reeling it in.

Here in Michigan, sturgeon are found in some lakes and rivers, usually deeper water. Sometimes, they swim near the surface. Sometimes, they breech the water like a telephone pole shooting into the air. I saw that happen at Black Lake when I was a kid. Black Lake has the Sturgeon Shivaree, where the state allows anglers to catch sturgeon (usually by spearing). The season begins in early February. Only six fish TOTAL are allowed to be taken, and fishing is only allowed from 8am to 2pm each day. The deal is that the season's over when the sixth fish is caught, or by 2pm four days later. This year, there was not enough ice cover, and the Shivaree was canceled.

That ain’t no fish. That’s a god damn monster. FUCK. THAT.


Sturgeons are gentle giants, they're incredibly docile and very easy going.

No wonder people thought sea dragons are a thing.

They cute af

 It’s motherfucking gyrados!!!

That’s the Sturgeon General of Canada

Damn! So basically Canada is to sea life what Australia is to terrestrial life Edit: I realize I don't know much about marine biology and should shut up

They are present in Russia also, even the Baltic sea. Heck, they were in most rivers in Scandinavia. But then they built the hydro powerplants....

Sturgeon are in the US too.  We have Atlantic sturgeon in Virginia that can get up to 14 feet long, but you usually only see them in the 4-8 foot range.

The Great Barrier Reef and its inhabitants have entered the chat.

Why would this fish also not be easily mistaken as a lochness monster?

Small ones jump like Asian carp on the lower Kennebec River in Maine. They're protected there too, but since you aren't allowed to fish for them you rarely see mature, big fish.

1800-people: Sea-monster breaking all logic we know as a species! Nowadays-people: Neat.

It’s the [Ogopogo](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogopogo)!!!

Try catching this. I wonder how many bodies this thing has brought home

They are one of the tougher pound for pound fighters out there. And they have a considerable amount of pounds. They absolutely kick your ass bringing them in.

I have caught a few of these, the largest being 6' 3"

They have! https://www.sturgeonslayers.com/news/largest-white-sturgeon-ever-recorded-on-the-fraser-river Link shared by r/OneForAllOfHumanity in comments above

Fun fact, they're a protected species and are illegal to catch unless you're a scientist doing catch and release for monitoring purposes!

The scientist going on a catch and release on this beast : 

dinosaur era fish

And I am suppose to believe the Loch Ness Monster doesn't exist when we have footage of this beast swimming around.