9:50am Monday 22nd March 2010
By Alicia Kelly
A STURGEON discovered in a Worcester back garden has become an international star.
The 1ft-long (0.3m) fish first hit the headlines in your Worcester News after it was found mysteriously lying in the middle of a lawn in Bromwich Road, St John’s, two weeks ago.
We told the story of how the distressed fish - originally named Lucky - survived with the help of staff from Petlink Aquatics and Reptiles, who later christened it Stan.
Since then, Stan has featured on a radio show and appeared in the pages of a national tabloid newspaper – and he is now set to feature in an American magazine.
At the same time, dozens of people have visited the St John’s shop to catch a glimpse of the fish.
However, the mystery of where it came from may finally have been solved after the shop’s director Clive Longstaff revealed a possible owner had come forward.
Mr Longstaff said: “I heard from a man who had bought a sturgeon from a shop 18 months ago and it’s now missing from his pond.
“He lives quite close to where the sturgeon was found near the Bromwich Road waterworks.
“I’m going to go and have a chat with him to see if his pond is suitable. If so, we will hand it over.
“It seems likely it’s been taken by a heron but because a sturgeon is quite armoured and has some quite sharp fins, he’s fought his way free and ended up in the garden.”
Mr Longstaff said: “This fish business has gone a bit bonkers, with the amount of people coming in to look at him. We probably have about four to six people a day come to see him. Some even bring fact files with them.
“Some people come in time and time again to say, ‘Do you still have Stan here and can I have a look at him?’ “I had a phone call yesterday from People magazine in New York. Stan is a multi-national celebrity now.”
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