Migratory Fishes

Sturgeon

Originally Sturgeon lived in most of the German Rivers.

The biggest representative of the Sturgeons, the "Hausen" (huso huso) found its spawning habitat in the Danube River and migrated into the Black Sea where it acheived its extraordinary size of up to 8m in length and 1.500 kg of weight.

The smallest German Sturgeon species, the "Sterlet" (Acipenser ruthenus) also lives in the Danube River and grows to about one meter in length. The European Sturgeon (Acipenser sturio) and the Atlantic Sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus) inhabited the rivers that flow into the North Sea, Baltic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. They also grew to impressing sizes of 3 meters in length weighing up to 300 kg. 

The body shape of all Sturgeons resembles Sharks. They leave a somewhat prehistoric impression as their bodies are covered with bony shields. Indeed Sturgeon are very old from an evolutionary point of view. 

Sturgeon is the source of Caviar. Beluga Caviar is the roe (eggs) of the "Hausen". Also the meat of Sturgeon is very tasty.

One reason for the extinction in Germany and the endangered worldwide status of Sturgeon is overfishing.

As a migratory species yet Sturgeon depend on free access to their spawning habitats.

Migratory Obstacles are one primary reason why Sturgeon despite of intensive efforts could still not  sustainably be reintroduced into the German rivers.

Knowing that "Hausen" with more than a ton of weight migrated up the Danube into the region of Ulm gives an idea which kind of breathtaking scenes in nature the people of our time have to miss.