What sturgeon general's warning

On Sunday, June 10 2007, Tara Spears, 32 of Bell FL discovered the hard way what a collision can do to you. She was the passenger in an 18-foot Checkmate boat just north of Rock Bluff on the Suwannee River when the incident occured. The boat was traveling at a moderate speed according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials when she was knocked unconscious by a flying fish.

Spears became the second woman to have been injured by a collision with a leaping sturgeon on the river in recent months. She was taken to the hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries but that wasn't the case for Sharon Touchton, 50, of St Petersburg FL on March 31 2007. Touchton was near the town of Suwannee with a group of personal watercraft enthusiasts and was traveling approximately 25-30 mph right before her collision. Her husband was the first to find her floating injured and not breathing and she was taken by helicopter to Shands at the University of Florida in Gainesville for her numerous, serious injuries. She had a ruptured spleen and surgeons reattached three of her fingers but she lost a pinkie finger and a tooth in the accident.

Touchton was only able to tell investigators something about a big fish when she was able to finally talk, while Spears had several witnesses to her episode of "when big fish fly" incident. Karen Parker with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said that the problems with leaping sturgeon came to a head last year with 10 people being injured by the large, prehistoric looking fish.

Sturgeon can grow up to 8 feet long, weigh up to 200 pounds and get their prehistoric look from the thick, hard plates that grow along their back. These plates are believed to be what caused the serious injuries to Touchton in her collision. The Gulf sturgeon migrate each year into the Suwannee River in March to spawn and stay until fall before returning to the Gulf. Researchers have found no solid reason as to why the fish leap but there has been a suggestion that with water levels lowered in drought conditions, there is a lot less river for the fish and watercraft to share.

Was this another case of a plot to remove women from boating on the Suwannee River, a chance meeting with the fickle fish of fate or just a case of not reading the sturgeon general's safety message at the boat ramp?