A Florida man riding a personal watercraft on the Suwannee River was knocked unconscious after a 4-foot long sturgeon jumped out of water and hit him. According to wildlife officials the man was air-lifted and hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries.

According to a statement from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Blake Nicholas Fessenden, 23, was heading north on the Suwannee River Sunday just north of the Hart Springs Sand Bar when he was hit by the long snout fish.

Fessenden was knocked unconscious as he fell off the craft.

Fessenden was prevented from drowning by his girlfriend who was riding another watercraft behind him. She was able to get to Fessenden and hold his head above water before passengers on another vessel arrived to pull him from the water, officials said.

He was airlifted to Shands Hospital in Gainesville where he was treated for minor injuries, officials said.

In a previous incident in April, a 31-year-old woman was hospitalized after a 3-foot-long sturgeon jumped into a boat being driven by her fiance. The pair was also on the Suwannee River.

Officials at the time said similar accidents occur once or twice a year on the river and that the fish can jump as high as 8 feet in the air and can weigh up to 200 pounds.