European Sea Sturgeon

Acipenser sturio

The European sea sturgeon, Acipenser sturio, also called the European sturgeon or common sturgeon, is a large anadromous fish that once used many major rivers and coastal waters of western Europe. It has a long armored body with bony scutes, a shark-like tail, barbels near the mouth, and a bottom-feeding snout. Adults live mainly at sea and return to large rivers with clean gravel or rocky substrates to spawn. Slow growth, late maturity, and a long lifespan made the species highly vulnerable to overfishing, river engineering, pollution, and caviar harvest.

Today the European sea sturgeon is the subject of intensive conservation rather than ordinary fishkeeping or commercial production. The last regular natural spawning has been associated with the Gironde-Garonne-Dordogne system in France, and recovery work uses captive broodstock, hatchery releases, tagging, telemetry, and habitat restoration. Fisheries programs emphasize bycatch reporting and safe release, while river managers look at barriers, dredging, flow, and spawning grounds. Sturgeons sold for ponds or caviar are usually other species or hybrids, not this highly protected European sturgeon.