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Police investigate City records second case of murder in 2013. PAGE 7 Officer convicted Judge hands down guilty verdict in shooting. PAGE 11 Food Matters Saving seeds helps improve diversity of crops for planting. PAGE 3
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Fish tales Faculty and students at VIU’s research facility move sturgeon to new tank for further study BY CHRIS BUSH THE NEWS BULLETIN
Tyra – named after supermodel Tyra Banks – isn’t exactly what you’d call runway material, unless that is, you happen to be a male sturgeon. She and her two pool buddies Angie, named for Angelina Jolie, and Dottie, because she has a beauty mark, were moved from a pool under an old greenhouse, where they’ve been since about 1988, to a holding tank in Vancouver Island University’s new International Centre for Sturgeon Studies building Wednesday. The centre opened in October 2011 and has a state-of-the-art freshwater closed containment recirculation system. Populations of smaller fish under study have already been moved there. It’s never polite to ask a woman’s age or weight, but it might be worth mentioning that Tyra, estimated at 40, is about the same age as her namesake. Each of the three fish tilt the scales at about 91 kilograms and are about 2.5 metres long. Dottie is pregnant with a belly full of roe, by the way. None of the media and guests invited to witness the move thought to ask how that happens in a tank full of females, but she’ll likely spawn in June. Moving these big gals took a sizable complement of fisheries and aquaculture students and staff to wrangle each fish into a litter, sedate them, check
Gord Edmonson, left, Vancouver Island University fisheries and aquaculture technician, and students go through the process of sedating Tyra, one of three female sturgeons moved to their new holding tank at VIU’s International Centre for Sturgeon Studies. CHRIS BUSH THE NEWS BULLETIN
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them over and then carry them to their new home. Sturgeon are ancient fish often referred to as living fossils. Their time on Earth dates back to the Jurassic era, about 250 million years. “There’s even evidence now that they might go back as far as 300 or 350 million years,” said Gord Edmonson, VIU fisheries and aquaculture technician. Over that time these gentle giants survived several mass extinctions, including their own near extinction at the hand of humankind in the last century. The creatures are bottom feeders with big mouths that vacuum up food from river bottoms. They have shark-like tails and cartilage skeletons, but aren’t sharks. Barbels, like big whiskers, around their mouths help them find their way around their aquatic environments. There are 28 species and subspecies of sturgeon worldwide. Nearly all are threatened or near extinction, so research and conservation is important. Tyra, Dottie and Angie are white sturgeon found in rivers west of the Rocky Mountains. They breed, depending on environmental conditions, every two to 10 years and can live 150 years or more. Maybe it was the slightly festive atmosphere or perhaps a sense they have time on their side that endows them with seemingly extraordinary tolerance for their handlers and the moving process. ◆ See ‘MOVE’ /4
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