Standing on the deck of a small fishing boat, Joe Facendola plunged one hand into a 90-gallon rubber tub and grabbed the swishing tail of the 4-foot, 25-pound Alantic sturgeon.
Using a pair of surgical scissors, Facendola snipped a small piece of fin on the fish's stomach.
"There will," he said, "be blood."
But just a little, and ultimately, the process could help protect the rest of the Cape Fear River's sturgeon population. Facendola, a technician with the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, has spent the past year catching Atlantic sturgeon, collecting their DNA, then tagging the fish and releasing them to track their movements.
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