82 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



pounds were landed in Portland, Maine, from the 

 South Channel, Georges Bank, Browns Bank, 

 and Western Bank off Nova Scotia during the 

 period 1927-1935. 89 About 12 feet is perhaps 

 the greatest length to be expected today. But 

 18 feet, reported for New England many years 

 ago, may not have been an exaggeration, for 

 sturgeon as long as that have been reported from 

 Europe also. The heaviest Gulf of Maine stur- 

 geon reliably reported (to our knowledge) was 

 one of 600 pounds, landed in Portland by the 

 steam trawler Fabia from Georges Bank, Decem- 

 ber 21, 1932. 



The following relationship between length and 

 weight, for sea sturgeons up to 7% feet long, taken 

 in the lower St. Lawrence River, 90 would probably 

 apply to Gulf of Maine fish, equally: 7 to 9 pounds 

 at 30 inches (to fork of tail); 15 to 18 pounds at 

 40 inches; about 35 pounds at 50 inches; 55 to 57 

 pounds at 5 feet; about 100 pounds at 6 feet; and 

 about 190 pounds at 7% feet. 



Habits. — The sturgeon makes most of its growth 

 in salt water but enters fresh-water rivers to spawn, 

 as do the salmon, the shad, and the alewife. The 

 large adult fish enter (or once entered) the Gulf of 

 Maine rivers late in the spring, working their way 

 slowly upstream beyond tidewater before deposit- 

 ing their eggs. So far as known, spawning takes 

 place in our rivers in May, June, and perhaps as 

 late as July. It has been suggested that some may 

 spawn in brackish water from the fact that females 

 with large eggs have been taken near Woods Hole 

 in June and July (i. e., in the spawning season). 

 Spawning leaves the spent "cows" in very poor 

 condition. In the Delaware, however, and pre- 

 sumably in Gulf of Maine rivers, they "become 

 again quite plump, acquiring considerable addi- 

 tional weight" 91 before they go down stream again, 

 which some of them do not do until September, 

 according to observations in the Delaware. But 

 we do not know how many years in succession a 

 given fish may spawn. 



A single female may produce as many as 

 2,400,000 eggs which hatch in about a week after 

 they are fertilized. 92 Judging from European 

 observations on artificially reared sea sturgeon, 



» Records collected by the late Walter H. Rich of the U. S. Bureau of 

 Fisheries. 



*• According to measurements and weights of 1,592 sturgeons by Vladykov, 

 Rapp. Gen. Minlstr. Chasse. PGch., Quebec (1948-1949), 1949, pp. 43-54. 



•' Ryder, Bull. U. S. Fish Comm., vol. 8, 1890, p. 266. 



« Ryder (Bull. D. S. Fish Comm., vol. 8, 1890, p. 231) describes the spawn- 

 ing and early development of the sturgeon in the Delaware River. 



the larvae may be expected to grow to 12 mm. in 

 length within 5 days after hatching; to 16-17 mm. 

 in 2 weeks; to 20 mm. in 4 weeks; and to 4-5 % 

 inches in 2 months. 



Some young sturgeon may live several years in 

 the lower tidal reaches of the rivers in which they 

 are spawned, until they have grown to a length 

 of 2)i to 3 feet, as appears to be the case in the 

 Hudson. 93 And it seems that they pass their 

 entire growth period in the salt estuary of the St. 

 Lawrence River, for sturgeons are taken there of 

 all sizes from a few inches long up to 7-8 feet or 

 longer. 94 But others may descend during their 

 first year, for sperlets only 5 to 6 inches long have 

 been found at the mouth of the Delaware River 

 and of the Elbe in Europe. 95 



Some Gulf of Maine sturgeon have taken to the 

 sea by the time they have grown to 3 feet or so, as 

 proved by the capture of sturgeons of that size 

 at various points around the coasts of the Gulf, 

 and off southern New England. And recent ob- 

 servations in the Hudson by Greeley make it 

 likely that all the sturgeon that are spawned in 

 rivers emptying into the Gulf of Maine go to sea 

 sooner or later to complete their growth. 99 



Sturgeon grow rather slowly at first while still 

 in their parent streams. Four, for example, 

 that were tagged in the lower St. Lawrence when 

 29 to 33 inches long, and recaptured nearby 2 

 to 3% years later, had gained only about 2 to 5 

 inches in length per year. 97 Very slow growth 

 is also indicated by ages of 5 to 6 years at 24 to 28 

 inches; 7 years at 25 to 31 inches; and 8 years at 

 32 to 34 inches, for sturgeon from the tidal waters 

 of the lower Hudson, as estimated from the mark- 

 ings on their otoliths. 98 It also seems that 

 sturgeon, like many other fish, make most of their 

 growth during the warm season in such situations 

 for one marked fish in the Elbe did not grow at all 

 between November and the following February, 

 whereas a second grew from 17 cm. (6% in.) to 38 

 cm. (15 in.) in length between January 17 and 



>' See Greeley (Supp. 26 Ann. Rept. Conserv. Dept. New York, 1937, pp. 

 68. 78-82, 89) for a study of the sturgeon in the Hudson River. 



■< A series of 1,592 sea sturgeons from the lower St. Lawrence River, studied 

 by Vladykov (Rapp. Gen. Minstr. Chasse, P8ch. Quebec (1948-1949) 1949, 

 pp. 53-56) included a good representative of sizes from about 4 inches up to 

 90 inches. 



M Prince reports a 6-rnch sturgeon from Hudson Bay (Rept. Sixty-seventh 

 Meeting, British Assoc. Adv. Sci., Toronto, 1897, p. 687). 



•« Greeley, Suppl. 26 Ann. Rept. Conserv. Dept. New York, 1937, p. 82. 



•» Vladykov (Rapp. Gen. Minlstr., Chasse, Pech. Quebec, 1948-1949, 

 pp. 61-63, 66, table 19). 



•» Greeley, Supp. 26 Ann. Rept. Conserv. Dept. New York, 1937, p. 68, 

 table 10. 



