Okay... so... do you know what a sturgeon is? As far as I'm concerned, it's a huge, slimy, scary looking, snake-like creature that sucks scum off the bottom of the lake. I actually don't even water-ski because I'm scared that if I fall in, a sturgeon will suddenly surface and eat my entire body in one bite. I'm dead serious. I'm really scared of them. Did you know that they can live for up to 100 years (which creeps me out in itself) and can grow to the length of a canoe which doesn't exactly ease my mind either...
BUT...
The local population of white sturgeon is not reproducing naturally in the wild and is endangered in both Canada and the United States. And I mean, ya okay, I hate these things, but really that's not good. I get it. I know these ugly creatures play a significant role for us... plus, they are the biggest fresh-water fish in all of North America. Wowzers!
For the past 10 months or so, hatcheries have been raising juvenile sturgeon and they are now ready to be released around our area. Yesterday, my daughters had the pleasure of being part of the release with their school. Nice!
My favorite part about this whole thing is that Kienna came home telling me that she got to release a sturgeon and she named it Christopher (after her late Daddy). She went on to say that fishing was her daddy's favorite thing to do (even though he wasn't much for releasing them, ha) and that the entire morning she was thinking of him... she also said that her sturgeon sort of looked like him. Awwh. So sweet.
I just love that there is a baby sturgeon out there, swimming down the Kootenay River, with Chris' name. He'd love that. I'm so happy that the kids can take moments like these to remember their daddy.
Oh! And I almost forgot... Kienna told me that somehow her sturgeon has a number on it, some sort of tracking device....and in a couple of months, we'll be able to log on to the computer, punch in the number and keep track of where her daddy is headed! How cool is that?
Good-bye Christopher!
Photos submitted by a friend.
