It was some of your people that showed me how to take care of a 6’ sturgeon (1964, summer) that I caught between the mouth of the Klamath & Klamath Glen. I tried to give them a large chunk, but “all” they wanted was the 15’ or so of cartilage that they pulled out, attached to the tail.
They said it was really the best part.
As for the bears ‘getting brave enough to enter the kitchen, my oldest brother, at Shasta Lake, got a desperate call from an anti-gun neighbor. A bear had tried to crawl through his doggie door, and ended up inside, wearing the door like a necklace, and he was asking “what should I do!?!”
My brother still has the rug, and the neighbor no longer has doggie doors...and bought a rifle.
That sturgeon cartilage (sturgeons have no bones but the skull) is boiled and very good to eat. Also the cartilage in the back of eels is good.