Sturgeon sightings beg for explanation

My July 1 column about the reported sighting of a sturgeon in Skaneateles Lake had a domino effect, as I knew it would.

After fishing guide Dick Withey went public about his encounter with a giant fish with a "funky-looking" head, several readers stepped forward to declare that they, too, had seen a sturgeon in the lake, from three years to three weeks ago. The spotters' estimates of the critter's size varied from 3 to more than 6 feet, a plausible range for a species with a reported maximum length of 7 feet, 11 inches.

If accurate, the sightings are remarkable because the scientific literature contains no mention of lake sturgeon in the coldest and purest of the Finger Lakes.