What’s killing B.C.’s Nechako River’s giant sturgeon?

Fisheries scientists in British Columbia have recovered the bodies, but have few other clues and no prime suspect.

Fisheries scientists in British Columbia have recovered the bodies, but have few other clues and no prime suspect.

So what is killing the giant sturgeon of the Nechako River? Government scientists are asking for the public’s help to solve that mystery after 11 of the iconic and endangered fish were recently found dead in the Nechako in central B.C.

The fish were all adults of a species that can grow to six metres in length and live for more than 100 years.

Their bodies showed no visible external injuries and provincial scientists did not believe the deaths were caused by disease, chemical exposure, angling or gillnet fisheries, the Ministry of Land, Water and Resource Stewardship said.

The dead fish had all been found since last week, the ministry said.

Nikolaus Gantner, the ministry’s senior fisheries biologist for the Omineca region, said it was the first time such a level of mortality had occurred in such a short time frame.

“We haven’t seen something like this in the documented history … So, these mortalities are obviously concerning, specifically in the Nechako, where this has not happened before to that extent,” said Gantner.

Scientists are trying to maximize what they can learn from each death, but considering some fish were “fairly decomposed,” the investigation was challenging, said Gantner.