Читать книгу South of the Pumphouse - Les Claypool - Страница 11
ОглавлениеThe waters in and around the San Francisco Bay were once immensely fertile, but the heyday of the fishing industry has long past. The Sacramento River, which has always been a key element in the flushing out of the bay, has been dammed and diverted over the years for various purposes, including agriculture and hydroelectric power. Couple that with the continuous dredging of the channels and harbors for shipping traffic, and the San Francisco and San Pablo Bays are left in a perpetual state of murk.
Regardless of the hurdles, Mother Nature is still able to maintain a relatively strong presence in these waters. The starry flounder, the bullhead, the striper, and the sharks, skates, rays, and other mud dwellers all live as best they can in this vast wasteland—or wonderland, depending on one’s perspective.
Among the aquatic residents of San Pablo Bay, one stands a bit more majestically than the others—a wondrous creature known as the sturgeon. The white sturgeon, or acipenser transmontanus, looks like a cross between a shark and a catfish, with the hide of an alligator. This prehistoric-looking beast can grow to be quite large. Along with the elephants of the African plains, the sturgeon is like no other creature in its domain. Relatively little is known of these ancient creatures, apart from what any local sportsman can tell you about the firm white meat and the incredible battle that awaits any angler lucky enough to sink a hook into one of the grand giants’ leathery mouths. California State fishing regulations define a “keeper” sturgeon as no less than forty-four inches long.
