Sturgeon Acipenseridae Fish Family

Sturgeon is the common name for around 26 species of fish in the family Acipenseridae, including the genera Acipenser, Huso, Scaphirhynchus and Pseudoscaphirhynchus. It also includes more than 20 species commonly referred to as sturgeon and several closely related species that have distinct common names, like the sterlet, kaluga and beluga..

These northern hemisphere fishes, Sturgeon, are found in large river systems, lakes, coastal waters and inner seas throughout Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, China, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Kazakhstan, Romania, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, other European countries and North America.

Often collectively, the family is also known as the True Sturgeons. Sturgeon is sometimes used to refer to the species in the two best-known genera, namely, Acipenser and Huso. All around the world, caviar, which is an unfertilized sturgeon roe, is a delicacy. Sturgeons are a major source of income and employment, as well as an important element of the local food supply in several parts of the United States. Current trends in illegal harvest and trade put all these benefits at risk.

Being one of the oldest families of bony fish in existence, the sturgeon is native to subtropical, temperate and sub-arctic rivers, lakes and coastlines of Eurasia and North America. They are exclusively distinctive for their elongated bodies, lack of scales, and occasional great size: Sturgeons ranging from 7–12 feet (2-3 m) in length are common, and some species grow up to 18 feet (5.5 m). Most sturgeons are anadromous bottom-feeders, spawning upstream and feed in river deltas and estuaries. While some are entirely freshwater, very few swim into the open ocean beyond near coastal areas.

Several species of the sturgeon is harvested for their roe, which is made into caviar. Now since these are slow-growing and mature very late in life, they become extremely vulnerable to exploitation and to other threats, including pollution and habitat fragmentation. Most species of sturgeons are currently considered either vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered. Sturgeons are interestingly, among the world's most valuable wildlife resources

Since 1998, international trade in all species of the sturgeon has been regulated under CITES owing to concerns over the impact of unsustainable harvesting of and illegal trade in its global populations. The situation in the Caspian Sea, where most of the world's caviar is produced, became particularly worrying. Over-exploitation of sturgeon stocks resulted in the recognition of the urgency to prevent further depletion and to restore the species stocks. To achieve this, trade in these species must be regulated, so that the rate of exploitation must not exceed the capacity of regeneration of the species.

The Review of Significant Trade is the Convention's mechanism for remedial action on the sturgeon species is being traded at significant levels without adequate implementation of CITES provisions. The end result of this review was a series of recommendations made by the Standing Committee at its 45th meeting, in Paris, in June 2001. Most of these have been implemented over the course of subsequent years. Wikipedia