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White Sturgeon
Acipencer transmontanus

Also known as Pacific Sturgeon and Columbia Sturgeon

Sturgeon are primitive fish with rows of bony, armorlike plates on their sides and a skeleton of cartilage rather than bones. Their tail looks similar to the tail of the shark. Four barbels hang under the sturgeon's long, flattened snout in front of the mouth. Sturgeon are bottom feeders. Their barbels are used to detect food and their tubelike mouth is used to suck up plants and animals along the river bottom.

White sturgeon are included in the Acipenseridae family that includes 24 species of sturgeon. They can grow very large – the oldest ones being more than 6 meters in length. On average the sturgeon is about 2 to 3 meters in length. They are grey to pale brown on their backs and pale grey to white in their bellies.

Where do white sturgeon live?

White sturgeon are found only on the west coast of British Columbia and the northern United States. And even in this range, their numbers have declined in the past 100 years so that they are now endangered. It seems that damming rivers has caused much of this decline. Both the Nechako and Kootenai Rivers have dams that reduce the water flow that sturgeon eggs need to hatch. This means that fewer and fewer young fish are born and grow to breed.

Most sturgeon live in rivers near their mouth (such as the Fraser River and the Kootenai River deltas) but there are sturgeon that live up-river and in lakes.

What is the life cycle of the white sturgeon?

Very little is known about the life cycle of the sturgeon. In early summer sturgeon migrate from estuaries into rivers to breed. Spawning is thought to take place in the fast water of rivers during June and July. They lay many small sticky eggs. The young grow rapidly until maturity, after which growth continues slowly for several years.

Another reason that sturgeon are endangered is because they can be overfished. Female sturgeon do not become mature enough to lay eggs until they are 22, and males do not spawn until they are at least 16. For this reason, fishing for sturgeon is very limited! Fishing for sturgeon in BC has been illegal since 1994.

Did you know that … White sturgeon are the largest freshwater fish in North America. The largest white sturgeon on record weighed approximately 682 kilograms (kg) (1,500 pounds) and was taken from the Snake River near Weiser, Idaho in 1898.

Sturgeon are highly valued for their eggs called caviar – a delicacy in many countries The largest commercial sturgeon fisheries are in southern Russia and Ukraine, though the industry is also carried on in the United States and western Europe.

Did you know … Studies of the Kootenai River suggest that these sturgeon have not reproduced since 1974.

Food for thought . . . Why do you think that sturgeon eggs need fast flowing water to hatch?

Links of interest: www.sturgeongeneral.org