Wednesday, July 04, 2007
A new scourge strikes Florida: Big, airborne fish - International Herald Tribune
... It may seem bizarre, but it is no joke. Leaping sturgeon have injured three people on the Suwannee so far this year, including a woman on a Jet Ski and a girl whose leg was shattered when one of the big fish jumped aboard her boat. Eight others were hit last year, and with traffic growing on the storied river, sturgeon are joining alligators and hurricanes on the list of things to dread in Florida.
"These injuries are very impressive," said Lawrence Lottenberg, director of trauma surgery at the University of Florida College of Medicine in nearby Gainesville. "You've got people sitting on the front of an open boat, and the boat is going 20, 30, 40 miles per hour. The fish jumps up and usually slaps these people right across their face and upper chest. Almost every one of them, universally, has been knocked unconscious. If you're not wearing a life jacket, you're going to fall in the water and potentially drown."
...
Sturgeon have been around since the dinosaur age, and they look it.
They have long, flat snouts and hefty bodies covered in sharp, bony plates. Gulf sturgeon can grow up to 8 feet long and weigh 200 pounds, or 90 kilograms, but even the smaller ones can inflict serious harm.
In recent years, injuries have included a broken pelvis, a fractured arm and a slashed throat.
Brian Clemens was motoring down the Choctawhatchee River in the Florida Panhandle in 2002 when a sturgeon "jumped up and hit him dead center in the chest," his wife, Joy, said. It broke his ribs and sternum, caused one of his lungs to collapse and put him in intensive care for three days, she said.
"There's a permanent dent in his chest," she said, "where that fish hit him."
Wildlife officials have posted signs warning boaters to slow down. Leah Daniel, a friend of Carter's, said there was only one other precaution to take: "Pray." ...
... It may seem bizarre, but it is no joke. Leaping sturgeon have injured three people on the Suwannee so far this year, including a woman on a Jet Ski and a girl whose leg was shattered when one of the big fish jumped aboard her boat. Eight others were hit last year, and with traffic growing on the storied river, sturgeon are joining alligators and hurricanes on the list of things to dread in Florida.
"These injuries are very impressive," said Lawrence Lottenberg, director of trauma surgery at the University of Florida College of Medicine in nearby Gainesville. "You've got people sitting on the front of an open boat, and the boat is going 20, 30, 40 miles per hour. The fish jumps up and usually slaps these people right across their face and upper chest. Almost every one of them, universally, has been knocked unconscious. If you're not wearing a life jacket, you're going to fall in the water and potentially drown."
...
Sturgeon have been around since the dinosaur age, and they look it.
They have long, flat snouts and hefty bodies covered in sharp, bony plates. Gulf sturgeon can grow up to 8 feet long and weigh 200 pounds, or 90 kilograms, but even the smaller ones can inflict serious harm.
In recent years, injuries have included a broken pelvis, a fractured arm and a slashed throat.
Brian Clemens was motoring down the Choctawhatchee River in the Florida Panhandle in 2002 when a sturgeon "jumped up and hit him dead center in the chest," his wife, Joy, said. It broke his ribs and sternum, caused one of his lungs to collapse and put him in intensive care for three days, she said.
"There's a permanent dent in his chest," she said, "where that fish hit him."
Wildlife officials have posted signs warning boaters to slow down. Leah Daniel, a friend of Carter's, said there was only one other precaution to take: "Pray." ...
Labels: animals
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