Now this rare fish is facing extinction!

White sturgeon are toothless apex hunters that float effortlessly in a few rivers in British Columbia. They haven't altered much in 200 million years. Sturgeon use their whisker-like barbels that hang from their snout to softly brush the gravelly floor as they move through the murky waters. A white sturgeon's torso is covered in five unique bony plates called scutes, giving it the appearance of an ancient fish. One was said to be 104 years old and weighed close to 1,800 pounds, while the largest ever reported measured 20 feet long. [caption id="attachment_43946" align="aligncenter" width="620"] The Nechako River, where the sturgeon population has dropped from 5,000 to 500 in the past century.[/caption] “When you see a massive head appearing through the murky water and the eyes look at you, it’s just incredible to see this majestic animal alive,” said Gantner, a senior fisheries biologist with the British Columbia government. “And you gain respect for it, knowing that most fish we see are older than us.” “I’m deeply saddened. These last couple of weeks, I feel like I’m going through grief,” he said. Each time he and colleagues tenderly move the hulking carcasses of the fish from the shore to the freezer and on to the necropsy table, he feels a pang of sorrow. “I don’t think I felt like that from other fish that I’ve worked with.” [caption id="attachment_43943" align="aligncenter" width="620"] To navigate in murky waters, sturgeon gently brush whisker-like barbels that hang from their snouts along the gravelly bottom.[/caption] “Whatever it is, it affects larger sturgeon, not other species. It’s constrained to a place in time and space. So that gives us some clues,” said Steve McAdam, a biologist with the province’s ministry of land, water and resource stewardship. “In a way, it’s easier to rule a bunch of stuff out than to rule some things in.” A number of theories have been put forth, one of which holds that the cause is the hotter water. But McAdam claimed that similar die-offs had not occurred during past hot summers. “There’s no end to the ideas. There are some partial explanations, but we’re really trying to keep an open mind and not veer too far down one path,” he said.