NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) — Reel it in! Only 80 miles outside of New York City on the Hudson River, staffers with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation caught a massive 220-pound fish during the annual Atlantic sturgeon survey last week.
The 220-pound, six-foot-long fish is suspected to be a female that has not yet spawned, the NYSDEC said in a Facebook post announcing the catch.
Adult Atlantic sturgeons are anadromous, meaning they dwell in saltwater but travel to freshwater to reproduce. This species spends their ocean time migrating from Florida to Maine, but travel into the Hudson River this time of year to spawn.
Hudson River Estuary Program fisheries staff participate in the survey, which began in 2006, each year for several weeks in May and June.
The survey helps track the fish population, and staff went through the usual process with their big catch near Hyde Park. The fish was measured, scanned for a tag, had a piece of fin taken for genetic analysis, weighed and had pictures taken before it was tossed back into the wild.
The NYSDEC said that the 220-pound monster catch was caught under a National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) endangered species research permit. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration lists the fish as endangered.
The three species of sturgeon in New York are the Atlantic sturgeon, shortnose sturgeon and lake sturgeon.
The Atlantic is the biggest sturgeon species, as well as the biggest fish in the Hudson River, but last week’s catch only showcases a fraction of the species size. According to the NOAA, the fish can reach up to 16-feet-long and 800 pounds.