Atlantic Sturgeon

I recently added this reduction print by Lisa Studier to my natural history art collection. This is not a bad representation of the colors of the original: the combination of blue fish in purply water on black paper is winning.

I once saw a yard-long dead Sturgeon on the Far Rockaway beach. It was all very steampunk, but rather sad, since I assumed a fisherman had left it there. A member of a very old lineage, Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus is now rare, endangered, or even extirpated, depending on your locality along the eastern seaboard of the U.S. Over-fishing and pollution have done them in. Once upon a time — and it does sound like a fable now, a “fish story,” but it’s amply documented — they could to be 14 feet and 800 pounds and live for six decades.
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Lisa is having a show at the Manhattan Graphics Center starting tomorrow until March 24. The theme is “Standard Varieties of Chickens.” The opening reception is March 5th. Check it out; I suspect, having seen some chickens in my day, it will be spectacular.