A local man got a smelly surprise when he paddled out to his boat for a late season sail on Friday.

David Borton of Pawtucket, who moors his Sea Sprite at the Herreshoff Marine Museum was planning to treat his visiting parents to a cruise around Bristol Harbor.

“When I got out to the boat there was a five-foot sturgeon in the cockpit,” Borton said. “It had clearly been there for several days.”
Borton was somehow able to navigate his boat, Lulabelle, to the HMM dock while navigating his person around his unwanted passenger. The RI Department of Environmental Management was contacted, as the species of sturgeon, a member of the family Acipenseridae, dates to the early Jurassic period and is listed as endangered.

DEM personnel collected the fish, and hope to study the remains and learn its cause of death. It’s a mystery how such a large fish ended up in Borton’s cockpit as it’s certainly too big to have been snatched by an osprey — though as sturgeon are commonly observed breaching, it’s entirely possible that this particular fish just picked the wrong time and place to jump out of the water.

With the help of HMM staff running a hose down the dock, Borton was about to give Lulabelle a rinse and enjoy a sail with his parents.