Past and current status of sturgeon in the Serbian part of the Danube River. Internat. Assoc. Danube Res. 36: this volume

• Main Authors: Mirjana Lenhardt, Ivan Jarić, Dragana Bojović, Gorčin Cvijanović, Zoran Gačić
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2006
• Subjects: and sterlet (Acipenser ruthenus; Beluga; Beluga*
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.579.7725; http://www.oen-iad.org/conference/docs/4_fish/lenhardt_et_al.pdf

Atlantic and ship sturgeon The problem of the absolute decline and the begining of the complete extinction of the Atlantic sturgeon and the ship sturgeon from the Danube River occurred in the middle of the 20th century (Ristić, 1963). The last specimens of the Atlantic sturgeon, in this part of the Danube River, were recorded during the period 1948-1954, two in 1948, one in 1950, one in 1952 and two in 1954 (Ristić, 1963). The ship sturgeon population is considered to be in the process of disappearing on the territory of Serbia. The last findings in 20th century were in period 1948-1954, when only 5 individuals were recorded (Ristić, 1963). The only recent record of the ship sturgeon was in October 2003 (Simonović et al., 2005). Beluga, Russian and stellate sturgeon Stellate sturgeon and Russian sturgeon were once common in the fishermen catch. Maximum of the Russian sturgeon catch, for the last 50 years, was in 1975 (17,6 t) and for the stellate sturgeon in 1965 (8,6 t). Today, together with the Atlantic sturgeon, they are protected by the Decree on Natural Rarities ("Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia", no. 50/93). Maximum of the beluga catch for the last 50 years were in 1966 and 1975 (20,7 t).