Saving grown females first — not fry — is crucial to preventing extinction of the beluga sturgeon, suggests a new conservation assessment of the fish that’s been pushed to the brink by demand for its roe, known as black caviar.
Current harvest rates are four to five times higher than the population can handle and management practices must change if the species is to survive, scientists report in an upcoming Conservation Biology.
“In this case, it’s a no-brainer,” says fisheries biologist Dylan Fraser of Concordia University in Montreal, who was not involved with the study. “The data are saying if you want to save the species, stop fishing — or drastically reduce it. The evidence is overwhelming.”