Beware of creatures flying from northwest Florida rivers. You may get hit, state says

Never mind the alligators. It’s the massive jumping fish that boaters need to fear most in northwest Florida.

The notorious “jumping sturgeon” are back, and they pack a punch powerful enough to knock you unconscious, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission warned in a July 3 Facebook post.

“Gulf sturgeon have made their annual migration ... in northwest Florida. Keep an eye out while on the water because these large, federally protected fish are jumping!” the commission wrote. “Always wear your life jacket. If you’re knocked out of the boat, hurt, and unconscious, a life jacket will help keep you afloat.”

Gulf sturgeon can reach 8 feet in length and 200 pounds along North Florida’s Gulf coast, so getting hit with one is like being smacked by a defensive back in the NFL.

Their tendency to leap is believed to be an attempt “to communicate with other sturgeon and to refill their swim bladder so they can maintain neutral buoyancy,” experts say.

“Boaters have been injured when they collide with the jumping fish,” the commission says. “There’s no warning; the sturgeon just jump. If a boater is passing through when the fish is in the air, there’s a chance of injury.”

At least one death has been attributed to a flying sturgeon in Florida, state officials say.

They are migrating largely “back into the Suwannee River as well as most other rivers in northwest Florida, including the Apalachicola, Choctawhatchee, Yellow, and Escambia,” the state says.

Boaters on those rivers are urged to stay off the bow (where getting hit is more likely), to go slow, and to “maintain 360-degree awareness ... now through the end of summer,” experts say.