The Columbia River is home to both Pacific Coast sturgeon species-- the green sturgeon (Acipenser medirostris) and the white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus).
The white In fact, is the largest freshwater fish species in North America--capable of reaching length of almost 20 feet.

Found on the west side of town in
the Columbia

Sturgeon
Prehistoric Fish
Bottom Feeders
life range from 100 year or more

Instead of scales, sturgeon are protected by a heavy sandpaper like skin and five rows of bony plates, called scutes, which serve as an armor like covering. Underneath their flattened snout are four sensory barbels and a toothless, "vacuum cleaner" mouth capable of siphoning up food.

Sturgeon generally feed on the bottom, rooting with their snouts and sucking up organisms that they detect with their long, sensitive barbels. Their diet may include clams, mussels, crayfish, worms, and fish eggs. As the sturgeon grow larger, other fish become more important in their diet. In the Columbia, sturgeon seem particularly fond of smelt, anchovies, lamprey, shad, and salmon. They have also been known to eat drowned cats, tin cans, onions, and spilled wheat from shoreline grain elevators.