| Family |
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Acipenseridae
Species (popular name): Sturgeon
(scientific name): Acipenser sturio (L) | | |
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| Name in the main European languages |
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I: Storione
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F: Esturgeon
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E: Esturion
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D: Stör
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| Max. size |
Kg: 200
cm: 3 |
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| Period of reproduction |
| Spring – from March to May |
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| Description |
| A very large size fish, it has a slender body similar to a shark. Along the body it has five vertical series of cutaneous bone plates among which small ossifications are spread. The superior lobe of the tail is much longer than the inferior one. Most of the skeleton is cartilaginous. The sturgeon is grey-greenish on the back and white-yellowish on the stomach. Its snout is long and triangle-shaped; its mouth, in a ventral position, tube-shaped, very protractile and toothless, is provided with four barbels. |
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| Biology |
| A typically euryhaline species, it is common all over Europe; in Italy it is present mainly in the northern Adriatic Sea, in the River Po and in the River Tevere. It lives in the sea near the mouths of big rivers, which in spring it goes up for reproduction, even for hundreds kilometres (an anadromous migratory fish). Sexual maturity is reached in adult age: males at 9-10, females not before 11; the sturgeon is very long-lived, it may go over 50 years, a considerable age for a fish! It lays its eggs on deep bottoms made of gravel and pebbles. Females produce a high number of small sticky blackish eggs: from 800,000 to many millions, around 25,000 per kg of live weight. At a temperature of 14-19°C, eggs hatch in 3-7 days, giving birth to fries about 1 cm long. The sturgeon does not reproduce every year, but only every 2-4 years. Feed mainly consists of bottom invertebrates: crustaceans, molluscs, worms, insect grubs. As the sturgeon becomes bigger, it also feeds on small fish. During its migration and in the reproductive phases, it completely stops feeding. |
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| Fishing |
| A species of great commercial interest, in the past it was object of active professional and sports fishing; now it is nearly completely disappeared from our waters both due to the construction of barrages, which prevent it from reaching its ideal environments (ZONE DI FREGA), and for the pollution harming the river mouths, where chemical dams rise! Its flesh is white, consistent and very tasty, as well as free of bones, and therefore is considered to be very precious; since its skeleton, as we said above, is mainly cartilaginous, during the cooking bones melt. From its ovarian eggs is possible to obtain first-rate caviar, and from its swim bladder an excellent fish-glue. The sturgeon is protected by the national legislation, which completely forbids to catch it. In the "Libro rosso degli animali d'Italia", published by WWF in 1998, the sturgeon is classified as a species in "danger of extintion". |
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| Curiosity |
| In 1758 a specimen of 550 pounds (about 180 kg) was caught in the River Tevere. The Duke of Carpineto gave it to the Pope as a present. |
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