# Name That Fish **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 18, 2002, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-that-fish/98930 "2002-03-18T21:05:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-that-fish/98930/1 "2002-03-18T21:05:00Z")
[http://www.stpetersburgtimes.com/2002/03/16/TampaBay/Name\_that\_fish\_\_Odd\_5.shtml](http://www.stpetersburgtimes.com/2002/03/16/TampaBay/Name_that_fish__Odd_5.shtml) Something big and ugly washed up in Florida; is it a coelacanth? Is it a duck-billed platypus? Or is it just a sturgeon? Scientists don’t know yet, because they’re apparently too busy to check it out. Pic in link. If this should be MPSIMS, forgive me - but I bet somebody on these boards can identify this sucker for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Doughboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@Doughboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doughboy)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-that-fish/98930/2 "2002-03-18T21:26:56Z")
The fish in the photo looks an awful lot like a sturgeon to me. The color is a little weird, but the sturgeon I’ve seen were alive so that might have something to do with it. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-that-fish/98930/3 "2002-03-18T21:38:44Z")
I would say it’s a [Shortnose Sturgeon](http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/prot_res/species/fish/Shortnose_sturgeon.html), certainly a Sturgeon of some sort. Whoever it was said it was related to a platypus needs to cut down the dosage a bit. ---
**Author:** ![TheJackOfHearts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheJackOfHearts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheJackOfHearts)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-that-fish/98930/4 "2002-03-18T22:12:07Z")
Beyond a shadow of a doubt it’s a sturgeon. I would say that most likely it is either an Atlantic sturgeon or one of the Gulf sturgeons reintroduced into the Tampa Bay area which the article refers to. I base that not on any particular identifying marks, but because, based on habitat and range, it is the only species of sturgeon which can be found in any numbers near Tampa, unless another species washed out of the Mississippi or Suwanne Rivers and then drifted all the way to Tampa in relatively undamaged condition, which would be next to impossible, given the number of scavengers in the Gulf of Mexico and the various other factors which would damage a fish on that trip, not to mention bacterial decomposition. It is possible that there could be extensive decompositon on the fish’s back, but it seems that the softer flesh on the stomach would be more heavily damaged first. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-that-fish/98930/5 "2002-03-18T22:32:12Z")
Yep - It’s a [Gulf Sturgeon](http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sptimes/index.html?ts=1016490540) ---
**Author:** ![mmmiiikkkeee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/edb3f5/32.png) [@mmmiiikkkeee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmmiiikkkeee)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2002, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-that-fish/98930/6 "2002-03-19T00:55:31Z")
yep… sturgeon - that was almost too easy!! I liked the thread a while ago where we got some snapshots of a couple assorted mystery bones found in a backyard and managed to figure out it was a channel catfish.