A Hupacasath fisherman played catch-and-release after netting a nearly seven-foot sturgeon last week in the Somass River.
Tom Tatoosh was out fishing with his wife and daughter near the mouth of the Somass River last week when he came upon the creature. After weighing it in at the fishery, he kept the fish out of harm’s way for a few hours by putting a light rope through its mouth plate and tying it to a pole. When the fishery closed four hours later, he pulled it back up and released it, and said he watched the fish take off into the deep.
“For me it isn’t a surprise,” said Tatoosh, adding that he has been catching and looking after sturgeon in the river for 20 years.
This was the biggest one he has caught, at nearly seven feet long, weighing in at 135 pounds. “It was quite a show,” he said. “When I saw it, I knew I could not lay harm to it.”
Tatoosh, a former Hupacasath First Nations councillor and Hupacasath fisheries manager, has been a commercial fisherman all his life, and believes that the sturgeon is a resident species of the Somass, although others have argued that they are migratory.
“We can go three or four years without seeing any, then we’ll see them every year,” said Tatoosh. “We usually run into them when we’re fishing for sockeye.”
Tatoosh added that he is fairly sure he has seen this same sturgeon in the river before, recognizable by its size.
“Until we get an abundance of them, we don’t know if they’re migrating or resident,” he said. “I believe that they’re resident.”
Graham Murell, the current Hupacasath First Nation fisheries manager, said there are a few sturgeon caught sporadically in the Somass. Some people believe there is nursery area in the lower Somass, he added.
Since his big catch, Tatoosh said he has gotten calls from a number of groups interested in documentation and conservation.
“It’s carrying on quite nice,” he said. “My plan was just to help this fish survive, to help it live through the night. We have to look after the resources, and that means all species.”