Giant dead fish in lake may be sturgeon

SEATTLE – A Seattle man who came across a giant dead fish as he waterskied on Lake Washington says he first thought it might be a shark.

Keith Magnuson now says he thinks the roughly 8-foot-long creature is a sturgeon.

The Seattle Times reported Magnuson found the fish Saturday.

The University of Washington School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences tied the fish up to a post and the Washington state Fish and Wildlife Department plans to send a biologist to look at it.

Fish and Wildlife biologist Annette Hoffman in the north Seattle suburb of Mill Creek said a sturgeon “is not a common fish to find in the lake.”

She said one found in 1987 was 11 feet long and weighed 640 pounds.

The deep water bottom feeders commonly migrate up and down the Columbia River, Hoffman said.