University of Windsor crew saves stranded sturgeon from EnWin well

Less than a week after launching theUniversity of Windsor's Freshwater Restoration Ecology Centre, director Trevor Pitcheris already wrangling and rescuing river monsters.

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The researcherand two students were called to save a sturgeon that had become stranded in a water intake well at the EnWin Utilities.

"I had to climb down into the pit that was about 18 feet deep, 12 feet of just water," he explained. "We lassoed it, put it in a cooler and then placed it back in the river."

Pitcher reeled the big fish in with the help of two students who rushed to the A.H. Weeks Water Treatment plant on Wyandotte Street East.

The researcher said the 30-35 kilogram fish was almost two metres long and is in great shape, but might have died if it hadn't been discovered.