Huge Endangered Sturgeon Washes Up on Pine Point Beach in Scarborough

A prehistoric-looking sturgeon washed up on Pine Point Beach.

WMTW says that Ken Kantro, a tourist, was walking on Pine Point Beach in Scarborough when he found a six-foot Atlantic Sturgeon that had washed up with the tide.

Ken told WMTW that it looked like the dinosaur fish had been hit by a propellor.

It was awe-inspiring, but sad to see this "living fossil"

Ask a fisherman if Atlantic sturgeon are endangered, and they'll tell you no. They swear they are everywhere. But they aren't. Atlantic sturgeon were once everywhere, but they are declining due to overfishing and habitat loss. They were super popular for their eggs, which are high-quality caviar.

Short-nosed sturgeon are one of the two kinds of sturgeons in Maine. They have bony plates along their backs called 'scoots', and bony plates on their heads.  The tourist Ken referred to them as "living fossils" because sturgeon fossils from 65 million years ago are very similar to their form today. That's insane! This fish has been around forever, and it could be because of caviar that they eventually become extinct. Researchers say that sturgeon are now more critically endangered than any other species group in the world.

They are big and scary-looking, and many people who see them vow never to go into the water again. Sure, if you swam next to that, it would freak you out. But this isn't a sea monster, it's just a scary-looking harmless fish. Hopefully, we'll be able to keep them around for another 65 million years.