Woman hit in the face by a sturgeon on Merrimack River

NEWBURYPORT - What was supposed to be a relaxing sunset cruise took a chaotic turn when a Massachusetts woman was hit in the face by a flying sturgeon on the Merrimack River.

12 stitches around her eye

"All of a sudden, I just felt like something smacked me in the face," said Kerry Camargo, who lives in Salisbury. "The fish was still on the boat!"

The sturgeon, which Camargo estimated to be about 5 feet long, left her bloodied with a cut across her eyelid.

"I got 12 stitches, right above and then right below my eye," she said.

It missed her eyeball by just centimeters.

"Because the thing was thrashing," said boat captain and friend Nanda Kramer.

Camargo's friends were stunned by how big and powerful the sturgeon was as it flopped around on the boat.

"It's not uncommon to see them jump in the mouth of the river, out on the flat," Kramer explained. "Why would we think it's going to jump 5 feet high and land in the boat and hit my friend in the face?"

Uncomfortably close call

When the panic died down, they got a good look at Camargo's bloodied face as they raced back to the dock.

"We were kind of scared at that point," said Meagan Glenn, who was on the boat.

"It hurt so bad," Camargo added. She's healing up nicely, but this was an uncomfortably close call.

"She could've lost her eye," Kramer said. "They're a very big fish!"

They were expecting a beautiful sunset – but no one could've predicted what really happened.

"It's just the ocean, man," Camargo explained. "It can be such a beautiful place, but it's also very dangerous."