North American Sturgeons and Paddlefish: Biology, Threats and Conservation

Abstract

Greg T. O. LeBreton, F. William H. Beamish & R. Scott McKinley (editors) 2004. Sturgeons and Paddlefish of North America. Kluwer, Dordrecht, 323 pp, US $86.00 (hardcover) Sturgeons and paddlefishes belong to an ancient group of vertebrates, the order Acipenseriformes, and are among the most valuable commercial fishes. They are anadromous or restricted to freshwater, and live in cold to temperate northern hemisphere. The extant Acipenseriform consists of two families: Acipenseridae or sturgeons with 25 species, and Polyodontidae or paddlefishes with two. Unfortunately, nowadays sturgeons and paddlefishes the world over are greatly depleted in numbers due to overfishing, damming of rivers, and pollution. I totally agree with LeBreton, Beamish and McKinley that ‘‘Sturgeon and paddlefish are strange and wondrous animals’’. In fact, this small group of fishes is the target of many conservation or management programmes, research papers, and scientific or technical books. Two classic reference works were published near 20 years ago compiling the available information about North American (Binkowski and Doroshov 1986) and European (Holcik 1989) sturgeons. However, the current scientific and technical interest in these primitive fishes is evident, and several meetings and books testify to this concern. Some highlights of this recent interest are the five International Symposia on Sturgeons held in Bordeaux (France) in 1989, Moscow (Russia) in 1993, Piacenza (Italy) in 1997, Oshkosh (USA) in 2001 and Ramsar (Iran) in 2005; as well as the foundation of the World Sturgeon Conservation Society in 2003. In North America, two relevant milestones were the meetings held in New York in 1994 and in St. Louis in 2000, and the subsequent proceedings volumes (Birstein et al. 1997, Van Winkle et al. 2002). On the other hand, world information and references about Acipenseriform fishes were compiled by Hochleithner and Gessner (2001) and Hochleithner et al. (2001), and a first global review of sturgeon and paddlefish fisheries was very recently presented by Pikitch et al. (2005). Sturgeons and Paddlefish of North America provides many insights into a variety of biological characteristics of these fishes. The title is comprehensive enough to include any kind of information about the Acipenseriform fishes of North America. The book, besides the Forewords, consists of an Introduction, 14 main Chapters, and a Conclusion. Furthermore, an Identification Key for species and a Glossary close the volume. The materials presented are successful at summarising and synthesising the current state of knowledge in this group of fishes. If you are looking for a single volume that will provide B. Elvira (&) Faculty of Biology, Department of Zoology and Physical Anthropology, Complutense University of Madrid, E-28040, Madrid, Spain e-mail: belvira@bio.ucm.es Environ Biol Fish (2006) 76:15–17 DOI 10.1007/s10641-006-9001-z