Why is the sturgeon still endangered?

KAVIARI

The sturgeon’s reproductive cycle and development are very long. Puberty is late, occurring after the age of 12 for most species in the wild.

The interval between two reproduction cycles is also important, varying from 3 to 7 years depending on the species. Fecundity may be high, but average fertility is low compared with other fish.

The sturgeon is robust and large. Its development has long protected it from threats to the ecosystem. But the advent of man has upset this balance. Its large size and above all its highly predictable migratory behavior have made it easy prey. Pollution and the industrialization of fishing have accelerated the process of extinction.

The sturgeon has always been threatened with extinction.

By the end of the 19th century, American sturgeon were gradually disappearing from the East Coast to the Pacific coast, via the Great Lakes and the Mississippi. In France, the last major fisheries took place in the Gironde region in the 1960s. The original wild sturgeons have gradually become extinct due to overfishing. From 1980 onwards, the accidental introduction of a plankton predator species caused major pollution in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov. This abrupt change in the ecosystem made it even more difficult for local sturgeon to reproduce. At the same time, Chinese fisheries along the Sino-Soviet border were becoming highly industrialized, to the point of exhausting their resources as well.

At the end of the 1980s, the Caspian Sea was not only the first but also the last sturgeon reserve.