FISHES OF CHESAPEAKE BAY 
73 
able, pointed in young up to 3 or 4 feet but becoming blunt with age. Smitt (1892, p. 1058) states 
that the shortening of the snout in relation to length of fish during its growth is accomplished at 
the expense of its anterior part (the rostral cartilage), the distance from the anterior nostril to the 
tip of the snout being reduced with age from 47 to 28 per cent of the length of head. Ryder (1890, 
p. 235), too, is of the opinion that the snout of the common sturgeon undergoes actual shortening 
and loss of substance during growth. Eye small, elongate, about 5 to 7 in snout; interorbital 
about 2.7 to 3.2, somewhat concave; mouth underneath head small, protractile, suckerlike; pre- 
maxillaries passing around front of mouth; maxillaries small, lateral, articulated with premaxillaries 
and with palatines; two pairs of short, slender barbels placed in transverse line about midway 
between end of snout and anterior edge of mouth, never touching mouth when deflected; nostrils 
double, close together, in front of eye, the posterior pair larger than anterior; teeth wanting, except 
in young; gill rakers small, sparse; skin smooth, grandular, or covered with small osseous points; 
dorsal shields 10 to 16 (usually 10 or 11); lateral shields 25 to 36 (usually 26 to 29); ventral shields 
8 to 14 (usually 9 to 11); preanal shields present; dorsal far back; caudal heterocercal, the upper 
lobe longest; anal beginning under posterior half of dorsal; ventrals inserted on a perpendicular 
beginning a little in front of dorsal; pectorals inserted low, near level of lower edge of gill cover. 
Color olive green, bluish gray, or brownish above; pale below. 
Two specimens, 7 and 9 feet long, were examined in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 
Cambridge, Mass., which gave the following shield counts: Dorsal 10 and 11, lateral 25, ventral 
9 and 11. American sturgeons are said to have fewer lateral plates (25 to 29) than the European 
fish, which usually have from 29 to 36. 
The sturgeon feeds on the bottom, its food consisting of a large variety of animals and plants, 
perhaps chiefly mollusks, worms, and small fish. When ascending rivers to spawn the sturgeon 
feeds little or not at all. 
Adult sturgeons, according to Smith (1907, p. 56), do not appear in the sounds and rivers of 
North Carolina until the latter part of April, when the main run of shad is over. Ryder (1890, 
p. 266) says: “As the season advances the spawning schools move upward from the salt waters of 
Delaware Bay and in the neighborhood of Fort Delaware and Delaware City, 45 miles south of 
Philadelphia, where they pass into brackish or nearly fresh water. From this point, southward 
20 miles and northward as many more, it is probable that a large part of the spawning occurs.” 
Records of catches of pound nets set in Lynnhaven Roads indicate that the sturgeon usually enters 
Chesapeake Bay during April. It later enters the rivers where the spawn is deposited. The eggs, 
when laid, are about 2.6 millimeters in diameter. They are demersal and adhesive, becoming 
attached to brush, weeds, stones, etc. The eggs hatch in about 1 week in water having a tempera- 
ture of 64° F. The mature ovaries of the female, according to Smith (1907, p. 56), may constitute 
one-fourth of the total weight of the fish, and a total of 1,000,000 to 2,500,000 eggs may be produced 
by one female. The young fish, according to Ryder (1890, p. 267), are sometimes taken from under 
ice in the Delaware River in midwinter, indicating that they remain in fresh water the whole year. 
The newly hatched fry is about 11 millimeters (2d; inch) in length (Ryder, 1890, p. 268), and in a 
few days, when the yolk sac is absorbed, it reaches % inch. The later growth has not been followed, 
but in Europe this sturgeon is said to reach a length of 4 to 5J^ inches in two months. Sexual 
maturity is believed to occur when a length of about 4 feet has been attained. 
Small, unmarketable sturgeon, less than 4 feet in length, are even yet taken in sufficient numbers 
in the Chesapeake to give promise that the present-day small catch of adults will at least hold its 
own, providing the fishermen in every instance return the immature fish to the water uninjured. 
From early March until April 8, 1922, in a set of three pound nets off Ocean View, Va., from 3 to 
