SHORTNOSE STURGEON Acipenser brevirostrum (Lesueur, 1818) 



Order: ACIPENSERIFORMES Family: ACIPENSERIDAE 



Distinguishing characteristics : A small species of sturgeon (seldom exceeding three 

 feet in length) , mouth wide (its width over 62 percent of interorbital width) , viscera 

 blackish, adults with short snout, scutes prominent, one row of preanal scutes. 



Present distribution : All recent U.S. records are from the Hudson River except one 

 Florida specimen. 



Former distribution : Atlantic seaboard rivers from New Brunswick to Florida, including 

 the Hudson, Delaware, Potomac, Connecticut, Salmon Creek (North Carolina) and St. Johns 

 River watershed (Florida) . There have been a few records in salt water (New Jersey) . 



Status : In peril. The species is gone in most of the rivers of its former range. Is 

 probably not as yet extinct. 



Estimated numbers: There are no recent records . 



Fecundity : The spawning habits have not been well studied. In the Hudson River 

 spawning fish have been taken in late April. 



Reasons for decline : Pollution is probably the major factor . Overfishing has also 

 been likely since this species has been intensively fished on spawning areas, also 

 has been taken in shad gill nets over a wide area of the Hudson and other rivers . 



Protective measures already taken : Other than some routine regulations such as 

 20-inch size limit, no protective measures seem to have been taken. 



Measures proposed : A survey of the current status of the species would be basic to 

 the development of a plan. Locating the spawning areas Vi'ould be a key point to the 

 development of effective protection. 



Number in captivity : No data , probably none . 



Culture potential in captivity : Probably not possible to culture in captivity . It might 

 be possible to propagate from fertilized eggs obtained from wild specimens . 



Remarks : Data submitted by the New York Conservation Department, Division of Fish 

 and Game . 



References : 



Jordan, D.S. and B. W. Evermann. 1902. American food and game fish. 



Doubleday, Page & Co. , N.Y. , 572. 

 Vladykov, V. D. and J. R. Greeley. Order Acipenseroidei in fishes of the 



western north Atlantic, Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 1(3), 

 1963:24-60. 



