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Beluga Sturgeon

The beluga sturgeon looks like it belongs in the age of the dinosaurs! The lineage of these primitive fish dates back to at least the Jurassic period, over 200 million years ago.

 

The beluga sturgeon is a massive, prehistoric-looking fish found in the region of the Caspian,  Azov and Black Sea basins. Unlike many ray-finned fish, it has a skeleton made mostly of cartilage rather than bone, similar to sharks. Its elongated body is covered in rows of bony plates called scutes instead of scales, and it has a pointed snout with sensitive barbels that help it detect prey along the seafloor. Beluga sturgeon can grow to over 8 meters (26 feet) long and weigh more than 1,000 kilograms (2,205 pounds), and individuals of this size can possibly live more than 100 years.

Although they spend much of their lives in salt water and brackish sea environments, the beluga sturgeon is anadromous, meaning it migrates into large rivers to spawn. They are slow to mature — females may not reproduce until they are 14–20 years old or older — and they spawn only every three or four years. Beluga sturgeon feed mostly on fish, including flounders, anchovies, and herring.

 

 

The beluga sturgeon is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Overfishing — especially driven by demand for its valuable caviar — has severely depleted populations. Because they mature late and reproduce infrequently, populations recover very slowly from heavy fishing pressure. Dams built along major rivers have also blocked access to traditional spawning grounds, further reducing successful reproduction. Illegal poaching, habitat disruption, and pollution of their waters continue to threaten the survival of this ancient giant.

 

 

Since illegal fishing and the construction of dams have depleted the populations of this fish so drastically, some countries are using artificial reproduction and stocking to try and prevent this species from going extinct. Better enforcement is also necessary to reduce illegal fishing. Oceana is campaigning around the world to stop illegal fishing, which will help critically endangered species like the beluga sturgeon recover.

 

 

  • Animal Diversity Web 
  • Graham LJ and Murphy BR (2007) The Decline of the Beluga Sturgeon: A Case Study about Fisheries Management. Journal of Natural Resources & Life Sciences Education 36: 66-75.  
  • IUCN Red List 
  • Miller, MJ (2004) The ecology and functional morphology of feeding of North American sturgeon and paddlefish. In: Sturgeons and Paddlefish of North America. Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. 87-102. 
  • Saadatfar, Z and Shahsavani, D (2007) Barbel in Sturgeon (Acipenser percicus). Journal of Applied Animal Research, 32:65-67. https://doi.org/10.1080/09712119.2007.9706848 
  • Sakata, Y, Tsukahara, J and Kiyohara, S (2001) Distribution of nerve fibers in the barbels of sea catfish Plotosus lineatus. Fisheries Science 67: 1136-1144.  
  • Vecesi, P, Sucui, R and Peterson D (2002) Threatened fishes of the world: Huso huso (Linnaeus, 1758) (Acipenseridae). Environmental Biology of Fishes 65: 363-365. 

 

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