California game wardens rescue a rare fish ‘folded’ in the back of a poaching suspect’s SUV

One of the more unpleasant realities about being a game warden investigating wildlife crimes is that much of the evidence involves carcasses in various states of decay.

So when a trio of California game wardens received a tip that an angler, nearly two hours earlier, had caught and heaved a federally-protected fish into the back of an SUV, they didn’t have high hopes the fish would be still alive when they showed up at the suspect’s house.

But that’s what the wardens said they found when they showed up at the Tracy home of Kevin Ty Tran, 67, who is now facing a number of wildlife charges in San Joaquin County for allegedly keeping a rare green sturgeon he hooked.

Remarkably, the wardens ended up returning the more than 5-foot-long fish alive to the river. It swam off, despite spending hours out of the water — a testament to the survival abilities of these ancient, long-lived fish that have remained nearly biologically unchanged since the time of the dinosaurs.

The case began in November at the Clifton Court Forebay, a popular fishing spot outside Tracy. An angler watched as Tran caught and loaded the fish into a Toyota RAV4 SUV, Matt Henderson, a California game warden, told The Sacramento Bee on Thursday.

There are two species of sturgeon — white and green — that swim in the rivers of California’s Central Valley. The catching of each is heavily regulated, due in part to the rarity of the fish and the demand for the caviar — unfertilized fish eggs — that the females carry.

Anglers with state-issued sturgeon permits and reporting cards are only allowed to keep three of the more common white sturgeon each year, and only if they’re a certain size. All other whites are required to be released unharmed. Green sturgeon, which are protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, can’t be kept at any time. They must be released while still in the water. Anglers are required to make a note on their report cards of any sturgeon they catch, even if they’re released.

The witness saw the green sturgeon’s distinct dark-emerald color as Tran hauled it out of the water, Henderson said. He knew that Tran had likely broken the law by failing to release it, but he didn’t know what to do to report the violation. So the witness called a buddy who told him to call the state’s CalTIP poaching hotline, Henderson said.

Photos helped make case

The tipster also did something that helped make the case for the game wardens. He surreptitiously snapped a photo of the fish as it was being loaded into the back of the SUV. He also took a photo of the vehicle’s license plate, Henderson said.

“I always tell people … don’t put yourself in harm’s way to try to obtain information you think would be valuable to us,” Henderson said. “But anytime we can get a license plate … that’s some of the most valuable information we can get because it’ll tie us to a name or a location where you know illegally taken fish or game may be returning.”

Henderson and his rookie warden in training, Martin Matthies, ran the plate number and learned Tran’s home address, but they were a 90-minute drive out. They and another warden, Adam Cahn, figured the suspect would beat them to the home.

But not long after the three wardens arrived, Tran pulled up with the fish, Henderson said. The wardens found the 64½-inch sturgeon “sort of folded in the back of this SUV” with its gills and body still moving, Henderson said.

The wardens quickly got a statement from Tran who said “he wasn’t aware that it was a green surgeon and that he was not allowed to retain it,” Henderson said.

The wardens issued Tran a citation before loading the fish into the back of one of the wardens’ pickups and hurrying to a nearby boat ramp.

Wardens said Tran is accused of unlawful take of green sturgeon, failing to release green sturgeon while fishing for white sturgeon, and failing to record catching the fish on his state-issued sturgeon report card — all misdemeanors.

Tran couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday. It’s not clear if he has an attorney since his case has not yet been entered into San Joaquin County Superior Court online case-tracking system.

At the boat ramp, Matthies, the rookie warden, put the fish — estimated to be between 20 and 40 years old — back into the river and watched it slowly swim away.

Andrew Rypel, a fisheries scientist at UC Davis, said a fish that long out of the water probably was facing long odds.

Still, giving any green sturgeon a chance to survive is critical for the continued viability of the few of the fish left in California.

Rypel said the fish, which can live up to 60 years, spend the bulk of their lives in the Pacific Ocean.

Green sturgeon evolved over the eons to travel from the ocean to the mountains every few years to spawn and deposit the large troves of eggs the females carry before swimming back downstream to the Pacific.

Now, due to the dams that ring the Central Valley, they’re only able to spawn in a short stretch of the Sacramento River.

California’s green sturgeon numbers have plummeted to the point federal regulators in 2006 listed them as “threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act.

“They’re a super, super cool kind of California fish,” Rypel said, “and definitely one that needs the protection.”

This story was originally published February 11, 2022 at 10:00 AM with the headline "California game wardens rescue a rare fish ‘folded’ in the back of a poaching suspect’s SUV."