About sturgeons

The Acipenseriformes live almost exclusively in the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting temperate waters above the 30th parallel in the northern Europe, Asia and North America. Half of the extant number of species occurs in Europe, mostly in the Ponto-Caspian region. Biogeographic analysis suggests that Acipenseriformes originated in Europe and that the early diversification took place in Asia.

(www.fishbase.org)

The Acipenseriformes include only 27 species, in comparison to 20,000 existing teleost species. For biologists, acipenseriforms are interesting as a group which exists for more than 250 million years, having survived the cataclysmic events that extinguished many other forms of life; for the public, they are valuable exhibits in aquaria and, of course, the source of much prized caviar. There are six species of Acipenseriformes that are present in waters of Serbia: beluga (Huso huso), Russian sturgeon (Acipenser gueldensatedtii), ship sturgeon (Acipenser nudiventris), stellate sturgeon (Acipenser stellatus), European Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser sturio) and sterlet (Acipenser ruthenus).

Distribution of sturgeons in Serbia

Today, Atlantic sturgeon is one of the most threatened freshwater fish species worldwide, while the ship sturgeon became very rare in the Danube River Basin and can be found only occasionally in the catch. All other four species are listed in the Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES). They are also listed in the Natura 2000 list, in the Appendix II of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS, or Bonn Convention), and some species are also listed in Appendices II or III of the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats (Bern Convention). Despite all these measures, illegal and poorly regulated legal harvesting of these species for their much-prized caviar still goes on and populations are continuing to decline. The major cause of unsustainable fishery is the absence of multilateral fisheries management for shared stocks and unsustainable fishing efforts. Solving of this problem should be one of the priorities for countries in transition, bearing in mind the high value of sturgeon resources. Sturgeon aquaculture development, for both ex-situ protection and diminishment of pressure on natural populations, represents another great possibility for the preservation of these species.

At the end, it should be emphasized that the Danube River represents the only river system in Europe which still bears a reasonable chance for preservation of sturgeon biodiversity.

Source: Nikcevic, M., Lenhardt, M., Cakic, P., Mickovic, B., Kolarevic, J. and Jaric, I. (2004). Historical review and new initiatives for sturgeon fisheries, aquaculture and caviar production in Serbia and Montenegro. in Otterstad, Oddmund (ed): Releasing development potentials at the Eastern Adriatic, NTNU (www. easternadriatic.com).

Internet presentation was funded by Minstry of Environmental Protection of Republic Serbia. Webdesign & maintenance: Ivan Jarić ijaric@imsi.rs