Comments on: Is there an ichthyologist in the house?

Question: Is there an ichthyologist in the house?

funkiwan — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:17:22 -0800

Please help me identify this fish that I found in NYC along the Hudson River.

Here's a couple of shots I took with various feet included for a sense of scale. Unfortunately my cell camera quality is dooky. I found this specimen while biking along the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway at around 116th St. It was in the grassy area between the river and the bike path.

By: pokeedog

pokeedog — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:32:00 -0800

I'm no biologist, but it looks like a Shortnose Sturgeon.

By: otolith

otolith — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:33:36 -0800

Woah, interesting find. Some kind of sturgeon would be my first guess. Another picture here. Looks like someone caught it and then left it? Weird. Not that I would eat anything caught in the water next to NYC, but still wasteful.

By: nekton

nekton — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:34:30 -0800

I believe that's a sturgeon. It's actually featured on all the signs put in place by the Hudson River Estuary Program.

By: blaneyphoto

blaneyphoto — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 15:26:04 -0800

Related: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/02/dot-earth-sturgeon-on-hudson/

Same fish?

By: funkiwan

funkiwan — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:15:36 -0800

While indeed you all gave correct answers -- and quickly, too -- best has to go to blaneyphoto's answer for providing a link to the specific instance of the fish in question! Here's the full article link.

For those who don't want to click through, it's a blog posting in the NYTimes by a photographer who saw the same fish I did on the bike path. Apparently, it's an Atlantic sturgeon, though it looks a bit more like a Shortnose to me.