220-pound 'sea creature' caught

They have been called creatures , living fossils , sea monsters , and even zombies. This week, a research team found a 220-pound specimen from this group that has become an increasingly rare sight.

A Facebook post from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation said that staff from the Hudson River Estuary Program fisheries caught a 6-foot-long Atlantic sturgeon last week. It was captured under a National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) endangered species research permit

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , all five U.S. Atlantic sturgeon distinct population segments are listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act. While they were once found in great abundance, populations of surgeon were depleted due to overfishing and habitat loss.

In a 2019 presentation for the Mandel Lectures in the Humanities at Brandeis University, Nancy Langston , distinguished professor of environmental history at Michigan Technological University , explained that sturgeon’s roots go back 250 million years , to the Triassic period – even before dinosaurs. She described the fish as “remarkably ugly” but also “remarkably cool,” as well as “basically dinosaurs” and “sort of like zombies,” since they keep coming back from near extinction.

“They have some serious history,” she said. In fact, their ancestors survived the Great Permian Extinction that killed nine out of every 10 species and sturgeon soon became the dominant, big fish in every major river system in North America and Eurasia. Langston said that they were once so plentiful that Potawatomi and Ojibwe tribes have legends that people could walk across water on the backs of the fish.

“Sturgeon are credited as the primary food source that saved the Jamestown settlers in 1607,” per NOAA.

Around 150 million years ago they settled into their current size, which for lake sturgeon can be up to 300 pounds. These fish can also live for up to 150 years. Atlantic sturgeon have been known to reach 14 feet long and 60 years old, said NOAA.

Amanda Higgs, a fisheries biologist with Hudson and Delaware Marine Fisheries and the Hudson River Estuary Management Program, told Fox News Digital that program staff have found sturgeon that eight up to 300 pounds.

“The Atlantic sturgeon has five rows of bony plates known as scutes that run along its body and a snout with four slender, soft tissue projections called barbels in front of its mouth,” according to NOAA. “In addition, the tail is like a shark’s where one side, or lobe, is larger than the other. All of these features give the fish its unique look.”

Langston said they have sucker-like mouths that look like “little Dyson vacuum cleaners,” to help them collect nutrients.

For most of the year, Atlantic sturgeon live in the ocean, according to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. During this time of year, adults move into the Hudson River to spawn. The recently caught specimen was suspected to be a female that had not yet spawned. Through the annual survey of the Hudson, Atlantic sturgeon population trends are tracked.

“Staff use nets to capture the fish, measure it, scan it for a tag (and give it one if it doesn't have one), take a piece of fin for genetic analysis, and weigh it before releasing it back into the wild,” said the department.

Atlantic sturgeon are not the only ones becoming rarer. Though sturgeon have a long history, of the 27 described species of the fish, 26 are now at risk of extinction globally, according to the Indianapolis Zoo.