56 



FISHES OF NORTH CAROLINA, 



Diagnosis. — Body elongate, its greatest depth about .16 total length; head long, about 

 .33 total length of body; snout long and sharp, its length about equal to remaining part of head, 

 becoming shorter with age; the smaller bony plates between the dorsal and lateral series are 

 stellate, rather large, and in 5 to 10 series; dorsal plates 10 to 14, lateral 27 to 29, ventral 8 to 11; 

 dorsal rays 38 to 40, anal rays 23 to 27. Color: gray or brown above, creamy, whitish, or lignt 

 gray below, (pxyrhynchus, sharp-snouted.) 



This, the common sturgeon of northwestern Europe and the Atlantic coast 

 of the United States as far southward as South Carolina, is found in the eastern 

 rivers of North Carolina, which it ascends in spring to spawn. It attains a large 

 size, examples having been taken that were 12 feet long and weighed over 500 

 pounds; the average length, however, does not exceed 5 feet. Two fish caught 

 at Hatteras in the spring of 1906 were 9 and 11 feet long, according to Dr. E. W. 

 Gudger, who examined their skins. 



In the Roanoke River near Plymouth, young sturgeon, about a foot in 

 length, begin to run as early as February and are caught in seines hauled for 

 striped bass, but the adult fish do not appear until the latter part of April, after 

 the main run of shad is over. Young sturgeon are also taken at sea; on April 22, 

 1904, the author observed 3 examples 15 inches long caught in a gill net at Cape 

 Lookout. 



Fig. 12. Sturgeon. Acipenser oxyrhynchus. 



The sturgeon is a bottom feeder, and subsists on a great variety of animal 

 and vegetable food which it takes up with its protractile, sucker-like mouth. 



The mature ovaries of this species may constitute 25 per cent of the total 

 weight of the fish, and may yield from 1,000,000 to 2,500,000 eggs. The eggs are 

 about .11 inch in diameter, and when deposited become agglutinated and 

 attached to brush, weeds, stones, etc. The young come from the eggs in about 

 1 week in water having a temperature of 64° F. 



Writing of the North Carolina sturgeon in 1709, John Lawson said: 



Of the sturgeon we have plenty, all the fresh parts of our rivers being well stored therewith . 

 The Indians upon and towards the heads and falls of our rivers, strike a great many of these, and 

 eat them; yet the Indians near the salt-waters wiU not eat them. I have seen an Indian strike 

 one of these fish, seven foot long, and leave him on the sands to be eaten by the gulls. In May, 

 they run up towards the heads of the rivers, where you see several hundreds of them in one day. 

 The Indians have another way to take them, which is by nets at the end of a pole. The bones 

 of these fish make good nutmeg-graters. 



The available statistics of the sturgeon fishery of North Carolina show a 

 very irregular production, owing to changing conditions, such as non-appre- 

 ciation, over-fishing and increasing demand. The catch in 1880 was 436,900 



