When Sturgeons Attack!

I just have to pull this quote out from a NatGeo article about sturgeon attacks from 2002:

Last summer, at least four people were injured when the fish with prehistoric roots leapt out of the water and crashed into them.

The injuries were not minor; they included concussions, broken ribs and sternum, a collapsed lung, cracked teeth, and gashes requiring stitches.

Still, biologists laugh at the media's characterization of the incidents as "attacks."

"This fish is a living dinosaur," said Frank Parauka, a fish biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "It's a really docile fish, easily exploited."

That's what they want you to think! How else did they survive to threaten the top of the food chain? Surely not their nearly impenetrable, hard, armor-like plates!

And this year there have been more attacks in our part of the world -- a woman was taken to the hospital last week with non life-threatening injuries after being jumped by a sturgeon along the Suwannee, and in April a St. Petersburg woman riding a personal water craft was attacked --she had to have 3 fingers reattached and still lost her pinky! I wasn't sure what a "personal water craft" was so I looked it up -- it's like a water ski. God, I hate those things. I'm sure sturgeon hate them even more.