Fish book son indd

Sturgeons – contemporaries of dinosaurs
107
Beluga has few enemies in the sea. The embryonic, larva and fry life-cycle 
phases of beluga are the most vulnerable to contamination, oxygen defi ciency, 
and predator fi sh.
Since young beluga in its fi rst year of life in the river and in the sea is a 
benthophage species, it may compete in searching for food with the off spring 
of other sturgeon species, gobies and carps.
The adult beluga can compete in searching for food with seals and sanders, 
eating carps and, in particular, the Caspian roach. In the sea, beluga has most 
competitive trophic relations with another major predator – the Caspian seal. 
On the other hand, the young seals are the sources of food for large belugas, 
particularly in winter and early spring.
The beluga lives a very long life; certain species live up to 100 and more 
years.
A 1.5-ton beluga was caught in 1827 in the Volga-Caspian area. In 1924, 
a 1,228 kg fi sh was caught in the area of the Biryuchya Spit (Volga-Caspian). 
On May 11, 1922, a female beluga weighing up to 1,220 kg was caught in the 
area of the Volga River mouth. Belugas with an overall weight of 1,400 kg and 
whose ovaries weighed 400 kg have also been found. A case is recorded when 
a beluga with a weight exceeding 1,000 kg was caught near the Ural River 
mouth, and its caviar weighed 180 kg. In 1973, a scientist from the Azerbaij an 
Fishery and Sturgeon Breeding Research Institute caught a beluga weighing 
over 1,000 kg. In spring 1988, fi shermen of the Neft chala region of Azerbaij an 
caught two belugas weighing 690 and 727 kg. In April 1986, a beluga weighing 
867 kg was caught in the Urals, and its caviar weighed 156 kg.

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G.M.Palatnikov,  R.U.Qasimov
108
   DID YOU KNOW THAT       
Fish weighing 15 to 300 kg, which 
we now know as belugas, were called 
belyak by Ural Cossaks;  beluzhatnik 
by Volga fi shers, and polumerniy by 
fi shery managers in the XIX century.
In ancient times, every sixth 
beluga caught in the Don River was 
over 4 m long, while every fi ft h beluga 
caught in the mid-Volga Region in 
the Middle Ages was 4-6 m long. In 
the XVIII century, academician S.G. 
Gmelin witnessed that 500 belugas 
weighing 655-820 kg were caught 
within just two hours. XX century 
records indicate that there were only 
about twenty cases of the catch of 
belugas weighing over 600 kg.
A stuff ed 6.5 long beluga is 
displayed in a regional museum 
in Astrakhan. The fi sh was caught 
eight years ago near Astrakhan city 
and weighed 1,840 kg. The regional 
museum received this huge fi sh 
from… poachers who anonymously 
told by phone where the beluga could 
be taken from. The scientists claim 
that this beluga could have contained 
up to 250 kg of caviar.

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Sturgeons – contemporaries of dinosaurs
109
The construction of hydro stations on the Volga River and the blocking 
of migration routes resulted in low replenishment of beluga stocks through 
natural reproduction. The beluga has lost practically all of its spawning 
grounds, and more than 90% of it is now artifi cially reproduced at commercial 
hatcheries.
Overfi shing, poaching, and pollution of the rivers and the Caspian Sea 
cause a sharp reduction of beluga populations. At present (since 2001), the 
commercial caught of beluga has been banned; however, poaching is widely 
spread, both in rivers and the Caspian Sea.
STURGEON GENUS – ACIPENSER
To date, 16 species are known in the genus Acipenser, and some of them 
are endangered. Five of them inhabit the Caspian Sea.
The Russian sturgeon is the most valuable and abundant sturgeon in the 
Caspian.
Russian Sturgeon – Acipenser gueldenstaedtii Brandt, 1833
Zootaxy position: 
 Type:    Chordata 
 Group:   Osteichthyes
 Order:   Acipenseriformes Berg, 1940
 Family:   Acipenseridae Bonaparte, 1832
 Genus:   Acipenser Linnaeus, 1758
 Species:   Acipenser gueldenstaedtii Brandt, 1833 
Latin name is given in honor of the Russian naturalist I.A. 
Guldenshtedt.
Common names: Russian – Russian sturgeon; Azerbaij an –nere, rus neresi; 
Iranian –khaviari rusi, tas; English –Russian sturgeon
Related forms. The Persian sturgeon  – Acipenserpersius, Borodin; the 
Atlantic sturgeon – Acipenser sturio, Linnaeus; the Siberian sturgeon – Acipenser 

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G.M.Palatnikov,  R.U.Qasimov
110
baeri baeri, Brandt; the Baikal sturgeon – Acipenser baeri baeri n.baicalensis, 
A.Nikolskiy; the Amur sturgeon – Acipenser schrencki, Brandt; the Sakhalin 
sturgeon – Acipenser medirostis, Ayres; the Adriatic sturgeon – Acipenser 
naccari, Bonaparte; the Chinese sturgeon – Acipenser sinensis, Gray, Acipenser 
dabrianus, Dumeril; the Japanese sturgeon – Acipenser kikuchii, Tanaka, 
Acipensermultisculatus;  the snub-nosed  sturgeon – Acipenser brevirostris, 
Le Seuer; white sturgeon – Acipenser transmontanus, Richardson; the lake 
sturgeon – Acipenser fulvescens, Rafi nesque.
Origin. There is no consensus on the origin of sturgeons. Some 
ichthyologists believe the genus Acipenser, as well as the genera Polyodon and 
Scaphirnynchus, originated in the territory of North America (the Mississippi 
River). According to other explorers, sturgeon-like fi sh originated in the 
territory of Central Asia in Tethys Sea basin.
Russian sturgeon
Distribution. The Russian sturgeon is endemic to the Pontic-Caspian 
basin; inhabits the waters of the Caspian Sea, Sea of Azov, and Black Sea.
There are diadromus and non-anadromous forms of sturgeon. The 
diadromus form has fast and slow matured varieties. Non-anadromous 
(permanent dwellers of the river) forms are in the Volga, Kama and, perhaps, in 
the Ural River. The Volga river population is most abundant in the Caspian.
In the Sea of Azov-Black Sea basin, sturgeon comprises the following 
populations: Black Sea-Caucasus (Rioni), Black Sea-Ukraine (Dnepr), and 
Azov.
The Russian sturgeon from the Caspian enters the Volga for spawning, 
fewer enter the Ural River, and very few enter the Terek, Sulak and Samur 
rivers. Along the Iranian coast the sturgeon enters the Sefi d Rud River, and 
rarely the Gorgan, Babol, and other rivers.

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