Wow thats very interesting, my understanding is up here on the columbia
river we have a lot of sturgeons. Will have to do some more checking....
Thanks for the info

Ed
"Shortwave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
From today's New York Times Science section:

September 22, 2005

Sturgeon Stocks Are in Decline Around World, Survey Reports

By CORNELIA DEAN

Sturgeon, the fish that produce black caviar, are severely depleted or
threatened with extinction almost everywhere in the world, researchers
are reporting today.

"I could not recommend that people eat caviar from any wild population
of sturgeon," said Ellen K. Pikitch, director of the Pew Institute for
Ocean Science at the University of Miami and the lead author of a
comprehensive new study in today's issue of the journal Fish and
Fisheries.

Experts have previously voiced alarm about the decline of sturgeon,
but today's report is the first global assessment of their precarious
state. Legal catches have plunged to about 15 percent of their peak 30
years ago, the researchers said, and aquaculture is now the leading
legal source of caviar.

Since 1997, the fish have been covered by the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species, but illegal trade
continues. The fish are also imperiled by dam construction that has
cut off spawning grounds and by damage to their habitats from
pollution.

"Few viable sturgeon fisheries now remain," the researchers wrote.

Their report covered the 25 species of sturgeon and the 2 species of
paddlefish, their near relatives, which also produce commercial roe.
Sturgeon typically take 15 years to reach reproductive age and then
typically spawn only every three or four years. As a result, they are
particularly vulnerable to overfishing, and they are expensive and
time-consuming to raise in captivity.

Sturgeon have been caught for caviar since 500 B.C., Dr. Pikitch said
in an interview, and at one time the salty little eggs were so
abundant they were served in bars "like beer nuts." But in the last
century or so, one sturgeon population after another in Europe, North
America and Asia has been fished to the brink of extinction.

Though aquaculture may be the best hope for preserving sturgeon, the
practice can cause its own problems through the removal of brood stock
from the wild, introduction of disease from penned fish, their escape
into native populations, and the requirement that other fish be caught
to feed the captive fish.