WildEarth Guardians

Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Ten Sturgeon Species Move Toward Endangered Species Act Protection

International Caviar Trade Threatens Species with Extinction
Contact: Bethany Cotton 503.327.4923

Additional Contact:

Priscilla Feral, Friends of Animals: (203) 656-1522 or feral@friendsofanimals.org

WildEarth Guardians and Friends of Animals’ May 2012 petition sought ESA protection for 15 imperiled sturgeon. The five remaining species await findings from the National Marine Fisheries Service. The petitioned sturgeon species are ancient fish that occur in rivers and seas in Europe and Asia. The species suffer from severe human exploitation and loss of their spawning grounds to dams and pollution. Sturgeon are described by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as the most threatened group of animals on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

“Sturgeon have survived for 200 million years – they are living dinosaurs – but they now face unprecedented threats to their survival all caused by humans.  The caviar trade is not worth wiping whole species from the planet.”  Said Bethany Cotton, Wildlife Program Director for WildEarth Guardians.  “We applaud the Service for recognizing the severity of their plight and call on the agency to quickly move forward to ensure protections for these incredible animals.”

All sturgeon reproduce slowly, and many species require decades to reach maturity. Sturgeon do not spawn every year, and males and females often have different spawning and migration cycles, making reproduction even less certain. Dams impede sturgeon’s ability to spawn, and the loss of eggs and breeding adults to the caviar trade means that depleted populations may take decades to recover.

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Sturgeon Species

The Caspian Sea, Black Sea, and Sea of Azov: the Heart of the Caviar Trade

(1) The olive-grey Acipenser gueldenstaedtii (Russian sturgeon; also known as Azov-Black Sea or Danube sturgeon) and (2) Acipenser nudiventris (Ship, Spiny, or Thorn sturgeon) are both commercially exploited and caught as by-catch, and are likely on the verge of extinction.

(3) Acipenser persicus (Persian sturgeon) are exploited for caviar and suffer habitat loss from dams and pollution.

(4) Acipenser stellatus (Star sturgeon) populations have been devastated by legal and illegal exploitation for meat and caviar. The Black Sea population is so depleted that commercial catch was halted in 2006.

Sturgeon of the Aral Sea and Tributaries

Three sturgeon species, (5) Pseudoscaphirhynchus fedtschenkoi, (6) Pseudoscaphirhynchus hermanni, and (7) Pseudoscaphirhynchu kaufmanni, have declined or disappeared as their Aral Sea habitat continues to shrink.  The Aral Sea shrunk by more than 60 percent from 1973 to 2000. Dangerous heavy metal pollution and agricultural run-off also threaten these populations.

Sturgeon of the Amur River Basin, Sea of Japan, Yangtze River, Sea of Okhotsk

 (8) Acipenser schrenckii (Amur sturgeon) is threatened by increasing pollution from Russian and Chinese agriculture. Its population has declined by an estimated 95%.

(9) Acipenser baerii (Siberian sturgeon) is fished for caviar and have lost nearly half its spawning habitat to dam construction.

(10) Acipenser dabryanus, (Yangtze sturgeon) may only survive due to stocking.  No evidence demonstrates that stocked animals are reproducing naturally.  

Organizations

WildEarth Guardians, a nonprofit environmental advocacy organization, works to protect wildlife, wild places, and wild waters in the United States and beyond. The organization maintains offices in New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Montana, Wyoming and Oregon.

Friends of Animals, a nonprofit animal advocacy group, advocates for the interests of animals in living free, on their own terms, and supports projects to protect at-risk animals, including marine species. The organization maintains offices in Connecticut, New York, Colorado, and British Columbia.