Shortnose sturgeon vs. asinine oafs

The shortnose sturgeon is one of South Carolina’s more impressive fish. It can grow up to five feet in length, weigh more than 50 pounds and live more than 60 years.

It’s also one of the state’s most endangered, with fewer than 1,000 estimated remaining in South Carolina, primarily because dams built by state-owned utility Santee Cooper in the 1940s have kept them from migrating from salty coastal estuaries to inland freshwater shoals, where they spawn.

As a result, it may cost Santee Cooper more than $100 million to get approval for licensing needed to continue operating its dams on lakes Marion and Moultrie, the result of a push by federal biologists to protect the shortnose sturgeon from extinction in South Carolina, according to The State newspaper.