Cornish Biodiversity Network  -  Supporting Wildlife Recording

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Cornish Red Data (2009)

The descriptive text, below the map, is from the Cornish Red Data Book (2009). The map on this web page depicts the organisms distribution and shows the records made pre-2000 and those made since.

Acipenser sturio - Common Sturgeon



Habitat & Distribution

A very rare fish in British waters. Very little is known about the distribution of this fish but it has been recorded, at various times, all around the British coastline. There are in excess of 28 records for Cornwall during the period 1820-2001. They are caught mainly at sea in trawls, or more commonly these days, in nets. A demersal species, which tolerates a wide range of salinities, most of its life is spent at sea close to the coast, entering rivers to spawn in the spring (although not in British rivers). The only surviving breeding population is believed to be that in the Gironde, France.

Conservation

The sturgeon is classified by the IUCN as Critically Endangered and is protected under CITES, Appendix 1, Annexes IIa & Iva of the EC Habitats Directive, App.III of the Bern Convention, Schedule 5 of the Wildlife & Countryside Act (1981) from 1992 and is on the UK and OSPAR Lists of Priority Species.

Source:

I.J. Bennallick, S. Board, C.N. French, P.A. Gainey, C. Neil, R. Parslow, A. Spalding and P.E. Tompsett. eds. 2009. Red Data Book for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. 2nd Edition.Croceago Press.

The Cornish Red Data Book Project was led by the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Federation for Biological Recorders (CISFBR). The full text and species accounts (minus the maps) are available on the CISFBR website.



Cornish Biodiversity Network. 2017.