The North American strategy of sturgeon breeding and possiibility of its realization in Russia

Abstract

The main principles of sturgeon breeding in the USSR were developed in the works of A.N. Derzhavin, N.L. Gerbilsky, N.I. Kozhin, B.N. Kazansky, I.A. Barannikova, T.A. Detlaff and other ichthyologists. The so called “Soviet model of sturgeon breeding” relied on using of wild prespawning breeders selected from commercial catches in lower parts of rivers. After transportation to sturgeon hatchery sturgeons were injected by pituitary preparation. The ovulated eggs were inseminated, subjected to de-adhesion and incubated. One-day larvae were kept until the transition to exogenous nutrition and, after preliminary growing on live food in pools (combined method) or immediately (pond method) transferred to ponds. The average weight of fingerlings was 3 g. The modern “Russian model of sturgeon breeding” uses the formation of domestic broodstock because the hatchery releases cannot provide sufficient recruitment. The North American model of sturgeon breeding uses only “wild” breeders in prespawning or spawning state. The fingerlings are raised at sturgeon hatcheries to high weight, marked and released at age of 1 year, while the number of offspring of each female is limited. The survival rate of juveniles in nature depends on environmental condition and ecological capacity, so the optimal volume of releases is strictly calculated. The North American model of sturgeon breeding is used not only in the United States, but in the Danube basin, in the rivers of Turkey and in conservation programs for Chinese sturgeon of Yangtze River.