Atlantic sturgeon
D-Atlantischer Stör; GB-Atlantic sturgeon; DK-Vestatlantisk stør; PL-Jesiotr ostronosy; LT-Aštriašnipis eršketas; EST-Atlandi tuur; RU-Американский атлантический осётр; FIN-Sinisampi; S-Atlantisk stör
Characters
1) Snout rather long (distance from tip of snout to the eye about equal long as from the eye to the end of the operculum).
2) Numerous denticles on the sides between dorsal and lateral scutes.
●) Four not fringed barbels at the bottomside of snout.
Often 2 to 3 m, up to max. 4,3 m length.
Similar species
Siberian sturgeon - no denticles between dorsal and lateral scutes.
Danube sturgeon - snout short.
Sterlet - bartels with ramifications.
Biology
Adults migrate upstream for spawning. Each season about 800.000 to 2.400.000 eggs can be laid over rocky ground. Young sturgeons migrate back to the Sea after 1 to 3 years . They reach sexual maturity after 8 to 30 years.Diet
They feed on invertebrates, crustaceans, worms, sand eels and mosquito larvae.Importance
Up to the end of the 19. century commercially strongly used as food fish and as provider of caviar.Endangerment
Due to river pollution and regulation, damming, overfishing and very slow reproduction rate regarded as very endangered worldwide. Extinct in the Baltic Sea.Remarks
For aquaculture purposes hybrids of different sturgeon species have been produced; such hybrids may escape and then appear as single specimens in the Baltic. Usually only specialists will be able to identify such hybrids. Presently there are programs to reintroduce sturgeons to Germany.Acipenser oxyrinchus
