Extinct fish turns up in Baltic Sea catch

Published: 14 Apr 09 13:27 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/18846/20090414/

A fish, declared extinct in the Baltic Sea over a 100 years ago, has made a remarkable reappearance - in the net of a professional Swedish fisherman off the coast of Öland.

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The fish, a sturgeon, has not been seen in the body of water off Sweden's east coast since the early 1900s.

But on Maundy Thursday the Baltic Sea sturgeon experienced its second coming and turned up in professional fisherman Ulf Åkerlund's net.

The 78 centimetre long 2.7 kilogramme sturgeon was spotted, much to the surprise of Åkerlund and his colleagues, in amongst their usual catch of writhing cod.

"I had at first no idea what it was. But we surfed around a bit on the internet and researched in a couple of books and we found out that it was a sturgeon," Åkerlund said to news agency TT.

The resurrected fish shows no sign of lethargy, Åkerlund confirmed.

"It (the fish) seems alert because when you poke it becomes very unruly."

At the Swedish Species Information Centre in Uppsala there is significant interest in the find. The sturgeon was declared extinct in the Baltic Sea at the beginning of the 1900s due to over-fishing.

TT/The Local (news@thelocal.se/08 656 6518)

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14:42 April 14, 2009 by Gower76

"The resurrected fish shows no sign of lethargy, Åkerlund confirmed."

Why should it? Just because they thought it was extinct, it hasn't really been woken from the dead.

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15:12 April 14, 2009 by Princess P

I wonder if they threw it back or if it's now on a plate next to some chips.

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15:21 April 14, 2009 by Mo

judging by the colour photograph it's swimming around in an aquarium somewhere

either this fish is very old or there are (or were) parents nearby

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15:35 April 14, 2009 by Braderunner Rennuredarb

Reminds me of the Coelocanth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coelocanth

Blue fish FTW!

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15:37 April 14, 2009 by Shark99 - The Great Catsby

The ocean is very large and a fish very small. I'm sure there are thousands of fish species that we don't know about, or have not seen. I think it's very fuzzy science to declare something extinct just because you haven't seen it for a hundred years or so. The Loch Ness monster is still swimming around and people haven't seen it for a while.

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21:00 April 14, 2009 by Roger O. Thornhill

It was served in a butter cream wine sauce with new potatos. Dodo bird is also good this way.

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00:14 April 20, 2009 by Coalbanks

Sturgeon are quite hardy & long-lived. Congratulations & Best Wishes for a greater return of sturgeon to the region.

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00:19 April 20, 2009 by Coalbanks

Nonsence! Dodo is NEVER served in a butter sauce! It is best served like a roast turkey or evan as red meat. Experiment & Enjoy! Now were can I get a brace of Passenger Pigeon or a few Gian Auk ?

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08:00 April 20, 2009 by Bee

Harvard University researchers have discovered the remains of an extinct bee, perfectly preserved in amber, with a load of orchid pollen on its back -- some of the only direct evidence of pollination in the fossil record.

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