FWC News Release

Contact: Karen Parker (386) 758-0525

A jumping sturgeon injured a woman, knocking her from her personal watercraft (PWC) and into the Suwannee River, March 31.

Sharon Touchton, 50, of St. Petersburg, was traveling north on the river with her PWC club, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) investigators said. The group had launched from Yellow Jacket boat ramp, where they had been camping.

Just upriver from the Wannee Boat Ramp, approximately five miles west of Bell, Touchton entered a large curve in the river at about 25 to 30 miles per hour. Other members of her club had spread themselves out, so there were no witnesses to the collision. Touchton’s husband, Nick, was next to enter the curve and found her floating face-down in the water, according to FWC officials.

Club members flagged down a passing pontoon boat, which brought Touchton to the Wannee boat ramp, where she was met by emergency medical personnel.

Touchton was airlifted to Shands Hospital in Gainesville with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, FWC officials said.

Because of her injuries and the fact that there were no witnesses to the incident, FWC investigators had to piece together what had actually happened to Touchton.