Acipenser brevirostrum

• Overview
• Common Names
• Description
• Biology
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Overview

Family : Sturgeons ; Inhabit river mouths , lakes , estuaries, and bays ; occasionally enters the open sea . Maximum known age is 67 years for females and 30 years for males. Flesh of good quality; eggs are suitable for caviar[1].

Vulnerable

Common Names

Click on the language to view common names.

Description

Family Acipenseridae

Cold to temperate waters of the Northern Hemisphere. Anadromous or restricted to freshwater . Body with 5 rows of scutes . Mouth inferior and protractile. Four barbels anterior to mouth. Less than 50 gill rakers. Adults toothless. Large swim bladder. Attain 4.2 m or longer . Important for their meat and roe . Nearly all species are endangered or threatened.The family Acipenseridae belongs to the Class Actinopterygii (ray-finned fishes ) and the Order Acipenseriformes. It contains 4 genera and 23 species. It may be found in Marine , Brackish , and Freshwater environments and is primarily Peripheral/diadromous. Some members of this family are used in the aquarium trade. Reproductively, most members of this family are nonguarders. The main mode of swimming of adult fish in this family is subcarangiform. Compared with other fish, the activity level of this family tends to be sluggish. Members of this family have been dated back to the Cretaceous period. This family may be found from 78° n to 24° s and 180° w to 180° e. Etymology of this family name : Latin, acipenser = sturgeon . 1853

Physical Description

Habitat

Typically found in water with a depth of -88 to 0 meters (-289 to 0 feet).[2]

Biome: Fresh water , brackish water, saltwater . Demersal .

Ecology: Shortnose sturgeon use of saltwater is generally amphidromous throughout most of the species' range , although far northern populations are anadromous (Kynard 1997). Spawning takes place in upper freshwater areas, while feeding (summering) and wintering occurs in both fresh and saline environments. This species typically spends its entire life history in the natal river and estuary and only rarely moves any great distance in near-coastal marine waters. There are no naturally land-locked populations of the species, but two rivers have populations that are segmented by dams.

This species typically attains an adult size of 75–100 cm total length, though the maximum recorded size for a Canadian-caught female was 1.43 m and 23.6 kg (Dadswell et al. 1984). Maximum ages determined for female and male shortnose sturgeon (again in Canada) were 67 and 32 years, respectively (Vladykov and Greeley 1963). Prespawning migrations in northern populations are triggered by increasing water temperatures of 7–10°C, and during spawning, males are attracted to females by a female pheromone (Kynard and Horgan 2002a). Spawning occurs at water temperatures of 7–15°C. Spawning habitat is a substrate of rock or large gravel (usually rubble ), and water depth during spawning is highly variable. Spawning suitability windows follow day length of 13.9–14.9 h, water temperature of 6.5–15°C, and river discharge that provides 30–120 cm/sec (mean 70 cm/sec) bottom velocity . All spawning windows must be open simultaneously for spawning to occur. Yearling shortnose sturgeon initiate the major dispersal that moves young fish to join older juveniles and adults in fresh or salt water foraging concentration areas. Yearling and older juveniles use the same summering and wintering habitats as adults (Kynard et al. 2000).

In southern waters, shortnose males may mature in 2-3 years and females in 4-6 years. In northern portions of the range, maturation may not occur for 10-15 years (maximum). Spawning periodicity is poorly understood but in the northern part of the range, females are highly variable (2-9 years) and males spawn at 1-5 year intervals depending on fish age and foraging conditions. Some males in northern populations spawn annually.


List of Habitats :5.1Wetlands (inland) - Permanent Rivers/Streams/Creeks (includes waterfalls ) 9.10Marine Neritic - Estuaries 10.1Marine Oceanic - Epipelagic (0-200m) 12.5Marine Intertidal - Salt Marshes (Emergent Grasses) 13.4Marine Coastal/Supratidal - Coastal Brackish/Saline Lagoons/Marine Lakes

Biology

Migration

Amphidromous .

Taxonomy

Unambiguous Synonyms

1. Acipenser brevirostris Brusina, 1902
2. Acipenser brevirostris Lesueur, 1818

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name . Latest taxonomic scrutiny: March 24, 1999.

Similar Species

Members of the genus Acipenser

There are approximately 158 species in this genus. Here are just 100 of them:

A. acutirostris · A. agassizii · A. albertensis · A. aleutensis · A. alexandri · A. anasimos · A. anthracinus · A. atelaspis · A. sturio · A. ayresii · A. baeri · A. baerii (Long-Nosed Siberian Sturgeon) · A. baerii baerii (Long-Nosed Siberian Sturgeon) · A. baerii baicalensis (Siberian Baikal Sturgeon) · A. baerii baikalensis (Baikal Sturgeon) · A. baerii stenorrhynchus (Lena River Sturgeon) · A. baeri baicalensis · A. baeri brandt · A. baeri stenorrhynchus (Lena River Sturgeon) · A. bairdii · A. beluga · A. brandtii · A. brevirostris · A. brevirostrum (Short-Nosed Little Sturgeon) · A. buffalo · A. carbonarius · A. caryi · A. cataphractus · A. cayennensis · A. chinensis · A. colchicus · A. copei · A. dabryanus (Dabry´s Sturgeon) · A. dauricus · A. ruthenus · A. eruciferus · A. sturio · A. flavescens · A. fulvescens (Lake Sturgeon) · A. girardi · A. glaber · A. gmelini · A. gueldenstaedti · A. gueldenstaedtii (Azov-Black Sea Sturgeon) · A. gueldenstaedti acutirostris · A. gueldenstaedti brandt (Azov-Black Sea Sturgeon) · A. gueldenstaedti colchicus · A. gueldenstaedti golis · A. gueldenstaedti longirostris · A. gueldenstaedti scaber · A. gueldenstaedti tanaica · A. guldenstadtii · A. heckelii · A. helops · A. holbrookii · A. honneymani · A. hospitus · A. huso · A. ruthenus · A. kaluschka · A. kennicottii · A. kikuchii · A. kirtlandii · A. kostera · A. naccarii · A. laevis · A. lamarii · A. latirostris · A. lecontei · A. lesueurii · A. lichtensteinii · A. liopeltis · A. gueldenstaedtii · A. macrorhinus · A. maculosus · A. mantschuricus · A. mediorostris · A. medirostris (Green Japanese Sturgeon) · A. gueldenstaedtii · A. microrhynchus · A. mikadoi (Sakhalin Sturgeon) · A. milberti · A. mitchillii · A. schrenckii (Japanese Sturgeon) · A. nacarii · A. naccari · A. naccarii (Adriatic Sturgeon) · A. nardoi · A. nasus · A. nertinianus · A. nudiventris (Fringe-Lipped Worm Eel) · A. nudiventris derjavini · A. obtusirostris · A. oligopeltis · A. orientalis · A. ornatus · A. oxyrhinchus · A. oxyrhynchus · A. oxyrhynchus desotoi · A. oxyrhynchus oxyrhynchus (Atlantic Sturgeon)

More Info

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Further Reading

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• A list of common and scientific names of fishes from the United States and Canada. Report presented at the eighty-ninth annual meeting, Clearwater, Fla., Sept. 16-18, 1959. Ann Arbor, Mich., 1960. ENG url p. 9.
• A list of the fishes of Pennsylvania / by Henry W. Fowler. [Washington, D.C.: Biological Society of Washington, 1919] ENG url p. 53.
• A manual of land and fresh water vertebrate animals of the United States (exclusive of birds) by Henry Sherring Pratt with 184 illustrations. Philadelphia, Blakiston's[c1923] ENG url p. 30.
• An ecological characterization of Coastal Maine (north and east of Cape Elizabeth) / Stewart I. Fefer and Patricia S. Schettig: principal investigators. Newton Corner, Mass.: Department of the Interior, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Northeast Region, 1980. ENG url p. 48, p. 52.
• Annual report of the Commissioner of Fisheries to the Secretary of Commerce for the fiscal year ended Washington: G.P.O., 1914- ENG url p. 34.
• Annual report of the Commissioners of Fisheries, Game and Forests of the State of New York. [Albany, N.Y.: The Commission, 1896-1900] ENG url p. 269.
• Baillie, J. and Groombridge, B. (compilers and editors) 1996. 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.
• Bain, M.B., Nack, S. and Knight, J.G. 1995. Population status of shortnose sturgeon in the Hudson River. Phase 1 Project Report to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, North Atlantic Division, New York, New York.
• Banks, R. C., R. W. McDiarmid, A. L. Gardner, and W. C. Starnes 2003. Checklist of Vertebrates of the United States, the U.S. Territories, and Canada.
• Bemis, William E., Eric K. Findeis, and Lance Grande 1997. An overview of Acipensiformes. Environmental Biology of Fishes, vol. 48. 25-71.
• Birstein, V.J. (1993). Sturgeons and paddlefishes: threatened fishes in need of conservation. Conserv. Biol. 7:773-787.
• Bulletin - United States National Museum. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, [etc.];1877-1971. ENG url p. 106.
• Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission. Washington, The Commission, Govt. Print. Off. ENG url p. 76.
• Catalogue of the fishes in the Museum / by A. G�nther 1870 ENG url p. 341.
• Dadswell, M.J. 1979. Biology and population characteristics of the shortnose sturgeon, Acipenser brevirostrum LeSueur 1818 (Osteichthyes: Acipenseridae), in the Saint John River estuary, New Brunswick, Canada. Canadian Journal of Zoology 57:2186-2210.
• Distribution and abundance of fishes and invertebrates in Mid- Atlantic estuaries. Silver Spring, Md.: U.S. Dept. of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Ocean Service, 1994- ENG url p. 247, p. 248, p. 255, p. 268, p. 275, p. 4.
• Ecology of Buzzards Bay: an estuarine profile / by Brian L. Howes and Dale D. Goehringer and Center for Marine Science and Technology, University of Massachusetts; Rebecca J. Howard, project officer. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of the Interior, National Biological Service, 1996. ENG url p. 73.
• Eschmeyer, William N., ed. 1998. Catalog of Fishes. Special Publication of the Center for Biodiversity Research and Information, no. 1, vol 1-3. California Academy of Sciences. San Francisco, California, USA. 2905. ISBN: 0-940228-47-5.
• Fauna of New England. Boston, Printed for the [Boston] Society [of Natural History] from the Gurdon Saltonstall Fund, 1904-25. ENG url p. 16.
• Field Museum of Natural History bulletin. Chicago, Field Museum of Natural History, [1930]-c1990. ENG url p. 10, p. 9.
• Fishery bulletin / U.S. Dept. of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service. Washington, D.C.: The Service: ENG url p. 631, p. 633, p. 719, p. 810.
• Fishery bulletin of the Fish and Wildlife Service. Washington, The Service, U.S. Govt Print. Off. ENG url p. 570, p. 84.
• Fishes of the Gulf of Maine, by Henry B. Bigelow and William C. Schroeder. Washington, United States Government Printing Office, 1953. ENG url p. 570, p. 84.
• Fishes of the Gulf of Maine. By Henry B. Bigelow and William W. Welsh Washington, Govt. Print. Off., 1925. ENG url p. 555.
• Fishes of the vicinity of New York city, by John Treadwell Nichols, with an introduction by William K. Gregory. New York, Printed at the Museum, 1918. ENG url p. 102.
• Forest, lake and river; the fishes of New England and eastern Canada, by Frank M. Johnson. Boston, Printed for subscribers [by University press] Cambridge, 1902. ENG url p. 355.
• Fritzsch, B. and P. Moller (1995). A history of electroreception. p. 39-55. In P. Moller, Electric Fishes: history and behavior. Fish and Fisheries series 17. Chapman and Hall, London.
• Groombridge, B. (ed.) 1994. 1994 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.
• Guide to marine fishes; [a new method for identification of marine fishes. New York]New York University Press[1961] ENG url p. 275, p. 285, p. 423.
• Hastings, R.W., O'Herron, J.C., Schick, K. and Lazzari, M.A. 1987. Occurrence and distribution of shortnose sturgeon, Acipenser brevirostrum, in the upper tidal Delaware River. Estuaries 10: 337-341.
• Hugg, D.O. (1996). MAPFISH georeferenced mapping database. Freshwater and estuarine fishes of North America. Life Science Software. Dennis O. and Steven Hugg, 1278 Turkey Point Road, Edgewater, Maryland, USA.
• IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre. 1986. 1986 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.
• IUCN. 1990. 1990 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.
• International Game Fish Association (1991). World record game fishes. International Game Fish Association, Florida, USA.
• Journal of the Royal Institution of Great Britain London: Royal Institution of Great Britain ENG url p. 312.
• Kieffer, M.C. and Kynard, B. 1993. Annual movements of shortnose and Atlantic sturgeon in the lower Merrimack River, Massachusetts. Transcripts of the American Fisheries Society 22: 378-386.
• Kynard, B. 1997. Life history, latitudinal gradients, and conservation of shortnose sturgeon Acipenser brevirostrum. Environmental Biology of Fishes 48: 319-334
• Kynard, B. and Horgan, M. 2002. Attraction of pre-spawning male shortnose sturgeon, Acipenser brevirostrum, to the odor of pre-spawning females. Journal of Ichthyology 42: 205-209
• Kynard, B., Horgan, M., Kieffer, M. and Seibel, D. 2000. Habitats used by shortnose sturgeon in two Massachusetts rivers with notes on estuarine Atlantic sturgeon: a hierarchical approach. Transcripts of the American Fisheries Society 129: 487-503
• Murdy, Edward O., Ray S. Birdsong, and John A. Musick 1997. Fishes of Chesapeake Bay. Smithsonian Institution Press. Washington, DC, USA. xi + 324. ISBN: 1-56098-638-7.
• Musick, John A. / Collette, Bruce B., and Grace Klein-MacPhee, eds. 2002. Sturgeons: Order Acipenseriformes. Bigelow and Schroeder's Fishes of the Gulf of Maine, Third Edition. Smithsonian Institution Press. Washington, DC, USA. 83-88. ISBN: 1-56098-951-3.
• NOAA technical report NMFS SSRF. Seattle, Wash.: National Marine Fisheries Service; ENG url p. 11.
• National Marine Fisheries Service. 1998. Recovery plan for the shortnose sturgeon (Acipenser brevirostrum). Prepared by the Shortnose Sturgeon Recovery Team for the National Marine Fisheries Service, Silver Spring, Maryland. 104 pages.
• National overview and evolution of NOAA's Estuarine Living Marine Resources (ELMR) Program / David M. Nelson and Mark E. Monaco. Silver Spring. Md.: U.S. Dept. of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Ocean Service, National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment, 2000. ENG url p. 17, p. 23.
• Nigrelli, R.F. (1959). Longevity of fishes in captivity, with special reference to those kept in the New York Aquarium. p. 212-230. In G.E.W. Wolstehnolmen and M. O'Connor (eds.) Ciba Foundation Colloquium on Ageing: the life span of animals. Vol. 5., Churchill, London.
• Oceanus. [Woods Hole, Mass., Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution] ENG url p. 65.
• Osteology of the extant North American fishes of the genus Hiodon Lesueur, 1818 (Teleostei: Osteoglossomorpha: Hiodontiformes) / Eric J. Hilton. [Chicago, Ill.]: Field Museum of Natural History, 2002. ENG url p. 133.
• Page, L.M. and B.M. Burr (1991). A field guide to freshwater fishes of North America north of Mexico. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. 432 p.
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• Rogers, S.G. and Weber, W. 1994. Occurrence of shortnose sturgeon (Acipenser brevirostrum) in the Ogeechee-Canoochee river system, Georgia during the summer of 1993. Final Report of the United States Army to the Nature Conservancy of Georgia.
• Savoy, T. 2004. Population estimate and utilization of the lower Connecticut River by shortnose sturgeon. American Fisheries Society Monograph 9 (in press)
• Scott, W.B. (1978). Acipenseridae. In W. Fischer (ed.) FAO species identification sheets for fishery purposes. West Atlantic (Fishing Area 31). Vol. 1. [pag. var.]. FAO, Rome.
• Squiers, T.S., Smith, M. and Flagg, L. 1982. American shad enhancement and status of sturgeon stocks in selected Maine waters. Final report to NMFS, Gloucester, MA.
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• Vladykov, V.D. and Greely, J.R. 1963. Order Acipenseroidei. In: Fishes of the Western North Atlantic. Sears Foundation. Marine Research, Yale University, New Haven, CT. 1(3). 630p
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Notes

Contributors

• American Fisheries Society. Common and Scientific Names of Fishes from the United states, Canada, and Mexico Sixth Edition. Special Publication 29.
• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-2006. Systema Naturae 2000. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Accessed April 20, 2007.
• Friedland, K.D. (University of Massechusetts) & Kynard, B. (U.S. Geological Survey) 2004. In IUCN 2008. 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCNRedList.org. Downloaded July 18, 2008.
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Accessed March 01, 2008. http://www.gbif.org Mediated distribution data from 5 providers.

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal March 01, 2008:

• Canadian Museum of Nature: Canadian Museum of Nature Fish Collection
• FishBase: FishBase DiGIR Provider - Philippine Server
• Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University: Atlantic Canada Conservation Data Centre (OBIS Canada)
• Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University: Atlantic Reference Centre (OBIS Canada)
• Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University: Bay of Fundy Species List (OBIS Canada)
• Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University: Canadian Museum of Nature - Fish Collection (OBIS Canada)
• Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University: Electronic Atlas of Ichthyoplankton on the Scotian Shelf of North America (OBIS Canada)
• Museum national d'histoire naturelle: Ichtyologie
• Royal Ontario Museum: Fish specimens

Identifiers

• Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 2486391
• Catalogue of Life Accepted Name Code: Fis-29585
• Fishbase Species ID: 2590
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 13526357
• Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) Taxonomic Serial Number (TSN): 161069
• IUCN ID: 222
• Natural Heritage Network Species Identifier: AFCAA01010
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Species Identifier: E00B
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 1347

Footnotes

1. Scott, W.B. (1978). Acipenseridae. In W. Fischer (ed.) FAO species identification sheets for fishery purposes. West Atlantic (Fishing Area 31). Vol. 1. [pag. var.]. FAO, Rome. [back]
2. Mean = 51.390 meters (168.602 feet), Standard Deviation = 103.040 based on 33 observations. Ocean depth information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]

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