Bycatch of protected species in commercial fishing operations is a primary concern to fishery managers because it threatens the conservation, protection, and recovery of fragile species, such as the Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus). One potential solution to reduce the risk associated with commercial fishing operations is to design commercial fishing gear that is more selecti...

The swimming performance of hatchery-reared. juvenile shovelnose sturgeon Scaphirhynchus plarorynchus and pallld sturgeon S. albus was studied in a laboratory swim tunnel at 20°C and 1O0C. The mean 30-min critical swimming speed was not significantly different between species at either temperature (36.9 crd s for shovelnose sturgeon and 35.9 cm/s for pallid utur-geon at 20°C. 19.4 cmls for shov...

Calcium regulation in sturgeon is of special interest because they are a representative of the ancient fishes possessing mainly cartilaginous skeletons and a supposedly low calcium demand. The present study aimed to characterize the effect of a chronic absence of dietary calcium and the effect of parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrPA) (1-34) (7) on calcium balance in juvenile sturgeon (Ac...

One of the last wild populations critically endangered stellate sturgeon (Acipenser stellatus) survives in Danube River. Limited knowledge about genetic structure, ecology, and evolution this species led to poor inconsistent management decisions with an increased risk for extinction wild. Here we show results structure screening River population over 12 years timespan. Our research does not bri...

Fecundity is one of the important indicators of reproduction biology in fishes especially in rearing and restocking management of endangered species such as sturgeon. The fecundity of stellate Sturgeon (Acipenser stellatus Pallas, 1771) was studied in 50 specimens captured by gill net (mesh size= 100 mm) and seine net in different fishing areas along the southeastern part of the Caspian Sea fr...

Exposure to chemical contaminants is often invoked to explain recruitment failures to populations of sturgeon worldwide, but there is little empirical evidence to support the idea that young sturgeon are sensitive at environmentally relevant concentrations. The authors used shortnose sturgeon (Acipenser brevirostum) and Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus) as models to investigate the sensi...

Legally certified sturgeon fisheries require population protection and conservation methods, including DNA tests to identify the source of valuable sturgeon roe. However, the available genetic data are insufficient to distinguish between different sturgeon populations, and are even unable to distinguish between some species. We performed high-throughput single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-geno...

The AHR pathway activates transcription of CYP1A and mediates most toxic responses from exposure to halogenated aromatic hydrocarbon contaminants such as PCBs and PCDD/Fs. Therefore, expression of CYP1A is predictive of most higher level toxic responses from these chemicals. To date, no study had developed an assay to quantify CYP1A expression in any sturgeon species. We addressed this deficien...

Following a 7.5-h transport haul, juvenile pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus) showed a small but significant increase in plasma cortisol to 4.7 ng ml but similar increases did not occur after fish were handled in a net held in the air for 30 s. Subsequent experiments on yearling pallid sturgeon and hybrid pallid×shovelnose (S. albus×platorynchus) sturgeon using the same 30-s handling stress...