How much does the largest beluga weigh. Unique beluga fish. The largest representatives: confirmed facts

Everyone has heard the expression “roaring like a beluga”, but not everyone clearly imagined what this animal looks like. What kind of beluga is this and what else besides the roar can it be famous for? Let's try to figure this out. Well, for starters, let's say right away that a beluga cannot roar at all. If only because it belongs to the class of fish, and fish, as you know, are silent.

Description of the Beluga

Beluga is the largest freshwater fish living in the waters of our country.. It lives on Earth for almost 200 million years and, like all other sturgeons, has learned to adapt to the most different conditions a habitat. These fish do not have a backbone, and instead of a skeleton there is a flexible chord.

Appearance

Beluga is large in size: its weight can be equal to one and a half tons, and its length is more than four meters. Some of the eyewitnesses even saw beluga reaching a length of nine meters. If all of this unconfirmed evidence is true, then the beluga can be considered the largest freshwater fish in the world. She has a thick and massive body.

With its head and muzzle shape, the beluga resembles a pig: its snout, which looks like a snout, is short and blunt, and its huge toothless mouth, which occupies almost the entire lower part of the head, surrounded by thick lips, has a crescent shape. Only beluga fry have teeth, and even those disappear after a short time. The antennae hanging down from the upper lip and reaching the mouth are slightly flattened downwards. The eyes of this fish are small and blind, so it is oriented mainly with the help of a well-developed sense of smell.

This is interesting! WITH Latin name Beluga (Huso huso) translates as "pig". And, if you take a closer look, you can really notice that these two creatures are similar in some way both externally and in their omnivorousness.

Beluga males and females differ little in appearance, and both of them have the body covered with equally large scales. The scales look like rhombuses and nowhere overlap each other. This type of scale is called ganoid. The back of the beluga is gray-brownish, the belly is lighter.

Behavior and lifestyle

Beluga is an anadromous fish, mainly it leads a benthic lifestyle. Myself appearance this amazing creature, reminiscent of the appearance of ancient armored fish, indicates that the beluga rarely appears on the surface: after all, with such a massive body it is more convenient to swim in deep water than in the shallows.

She continually changes her habitat in the reservoir and often goes to the depths: there the current is faster, which allows the beluga to find food, and there are deep holes that this fish uses as places to rest. In spring, when the upper layers of water begin to warm up, it can be seen in shallow water. With the onset of autumn, the beluga again goes to the sea or river depths, where it changes its usual diet, eating mollusks and crustaceans.

Important! Beluga very big fish, she can only find enough food for herself in the seas. And the very presence of beluga in the reservoir is evidence of a healthy ecosystem.

The beluga travels great distances in search of food and spawning grounds. Almost all beluga tolerate both salt and fresh water equally well, although some species can live exclusively in fresh water.

How long does a beluga live

Beluga is a real long-liver. Like all other sturgeons, it slowly matures: up to 10-15 years, but it lives a very long time. The age of this fish, if it lives in good conditions, can reach a hundred years, although now beluga live for forty years.

Range, habitats

The beluga lives in the Black Sea, in the Sea of ​​Azov and in the Caspian Sea. Let less often, but also found in the Adriatic. It spawns in the Volga, Don, Danube, Dnieper and Dniester. Infrequently, but you can meet her in the Urals, Kura or Terek. There is also a very small chance to see a beluga in the Upper Bug and near the Crimean coast.

There was a time when the beluga walked along the Volga to Tver, along the Dnieper to Kyiv, along the Ural River to Orenburg, and along the Kura to Tbilisi itself. But for some time now, this fish has not been taken so far upstream of the rivers. This is primarily due to the fact that the beluga cannot rise upstream due to hydroelectric power stations blocking its path. Previously, she also appeared in such rivers as the Oka, Sheksna, Kama and Sura.

Beluga diet

Recently born fry, weighing no more than seven grams, feed on river plankton, as well as larvae of mayflies, caddisflies, caviar and fry of other fish, including sturgeon species related to them. Grown up Belugas eat juveniles of stellate sturgeon and sturgeon. Young Belugas are generally characterized by cannibalism. As the young beluga grows up, her diet also changes.

After the underyearlings move from the rivers to the sea, they feed on crustaceans, mollusks and small fish, such as gobies or sprats, as well as herring and cyprinids until the age of two. Upon reaching two years, beluga cubs become predators. Now approximately 98% of their total diet is fish. Beluga food habits vary depending on the season and feeding grounds. In the sea, this fish feeds year-round, although with the onset of the cold season, it eats less. Remaining for the winter in the rivers, she also continues to feed.

This is interesting! The food of many adult sturgeons is various small living creatures that live on the bottom, and only the largest of them - beluga and kaluga - feed on fish. In addition to small fish, their victims may be other sturgeon and even small seal pups.

In the belly of one of the caught sturgeons, a rather large sturgeon, several roach and bream were found. And in another female of this species, the catch was two large carps, more than a dozen roach and three bream. Also, a large pike perch became its prey even earlier: its bones were found in the stomach of the same beluga.

Reproduction and offspring

Beluga starts breeding late. So, males are ready to breed at the age of at least 12 years, and females do not breed before they are 16-18 years old.

females Caspian beluga are ready to continue their race at the age of 27: only by this age do they become fit for reproduction and accumulate sufficient weight for this. Most fish die after spawning is over. But the beluga spawns repeatedly, though with interruptions of two to four years.

In total, 8-9 spawnings occur during her long life. She spawns on a sandy or pebble bottom, where there is a fast current, which is necessary for a constant supply of oxygen. After fertilization, the eggs become sticky and stick to the bottom.

This is interesting! A female beluga can lay several million eggs, while total weight caviar can reach up to a quarter of the weight of the fish itself.

In 1922, a five-meter beluga weighing more than 1200 kg was caught in the Volga. It contained approximately 240 kg of caviar. The hatched larvae, later turning into fry, set off on a difficult journey - in search of the sea. "Spring" female beluga, entering the river from the middle of winter to the end of spring, spawn in the same year. The “wintering” beluga in order to find and take a place convenient for spawning, comes to the rivers in August and stays there for the winter. She spawns only the next year, and before that she lies in a semblance of hibernation, having gone to the bottom and covered with mucus.

In May or June, the "winter" beluga comes out of hibernation and spawns. Fertilization in these fish is external, like in all sturgeons. Caviar attached to the bottom of the reservoir, for the most part, becomes the prey of other fish, so the percentage of survival among beluga juveniles is very low. Belugas live in shallow water warmed by the sun. And after they grow up enough, they leave their native rivers and go to the sea. They quickly increase their size and by the year their length becomes approximately equal to a meter.

natural enemies

There are practically no natural enemies in adult beluga. But their caviar, as well as larvae and fry living in the rivers, are eaten by freshwater predatory fish.

This is interesting! Paradoxically, one of the main natural enemies beluga - this fish itself. The fact is that the Belugas that have grown up to 5-8 cm are happy to eat the caviar of their relatives in the spawning grounds.

Population and species status

TO beginning of XXI century, the beluga population has declined significantly, and this species itself has become considered endangered and was listed in Russia and in the International Red Book.

IN natural environment due to the small number of livestock of its species, the beluga can interbreed with other related sturgeons. And in 1952, through the efforts of scientists, an artificial hybrid of beluga and sterlet was bred, which was called bester. It is bred, as a rule, in artificial reservoirs, since bester is not released into natural reservoirs, where other sturgeons are found, in order to preserve natural populations other species clean.

Beluga (lat. Huso huso) is a species of ray-finned fish of the sturgeon order, the sturgeon family, the genus Beluga.

Beluga - ancient fish on a planet that appeared on earth over 200 million years ago. The only closest relative of the beluga is kaluga, an inhabitant of the river basin of the Far East region.

What does a beluga look like?

Beluga is considered the largest of all freshwater fish. Body adult reaches a length of 4.2 m, and the weight is about 1.5 tons, with the females being slightly larger than the males.

The thick body of a cylindrical beluga is covered with five rows of bone formations - shields, and narrows noticeably towards the tail. The bony plates covering the head, sides and belly are poorly developed. More durable shields, in the amount of 13 pieces, are located on the back and perform a protective function.

Like all ray-finned fish, beluga fins are distinguished by the presence of long and sharp, serrated rays: the dorsal contains at least 60 rays, the anal from 20 to 40.

The elongated head ends in an upturned, pointed nose, which is slightly translucent due to the absence of bony shields. The mouth of the beluga is quite wide, but does not go beyond the sides of the head, a fleshy upper lip hangs over it. Antennae located on the sides mandible, wider and also longer than most sturgeons and perform an olfactory function.

The back of the beluga is distinguished by a greenish or ash-gray color, the belly is white or light gray, and the nose has a characteristic yellowness.

Where does the beluga live

Belugas are migratory fish, and spend most of their lives in the waters of the Black, Azov and Caspian Seas, and migrate to the rivers only during the breeding season, and at the end of spawning they go back to the sea.

By nature, the beluga is a loner. Adults and mature individuals live at great depths, juveniles prefer shallow water, not far from the mouth of the river.

In summer, after spawning, fish rest on medium depth and then fed before hibernation. Before the onset of cold weather, the body of the beluga is covered with a "fur coat" of a thick layer of mucus, and the fish falls into a state of suspended animation until the very spring.

What does a beluga eat.

Large fish need a lot of food, and the size of individual individuals directly depends on the diet: the better the fish eats, the large sizes she reaches. The main food of the beluga is various types of fish, and the beluga begins to prey at a very early age. young age while being a toddler.

Adults hunt successfully seabed, as well as in the water column. The favorite food of the beluga is gobies, herring, sprats, sprats, anchovies, roach, anchovies, as well as representatives of a large carp family. A certain part of the diet is made up of crustaceans and molluscs, and even medium-sized animals, for example, Caspian seal cubs or waterfowl.

Beluga breeding

Belugas are long-livers of the animal world, some specimens live up to 100 years, so they reach reproductive age late. Males are ready to breed at the age of 13-18 years, females mature by 16-27 years.

Spawning takes place in different time year and depending on this, the beluga of the spring and autumn course is distinguished.

The spring beluga enters the rivers from the end of January almost until the very summer. The autumn beluga begins running at the end of summer and ends in December, therefore it is forced to spend the winter at the bottom of the river in deep holes, and starts breeding only next spring.

Each mature individual does not breed every year, but at a certain interval, usually 2-4 years. The spawning grounds of the beluga go through deep rocky ridges, in the middle of a fast current.

The fertility of the female depends on her size, but in any case, the amount of spawned eggs is 1/5 of her own body. The average amount of caviar is from 500 thousand to a million.

Dark gray eggs, 3 mm in diameter, look like peas. Due to the increased stickiness, caviar perfectly sticks to cold underwater stones. At a water temperature of + 12-13 degrees, the incubation period is only 8 days.

The fry that were born immediately pass to higher nutrition, bypassing the diet, consisting of the simplest organisms. Without stopping, the juveniles go to the seas, where they live until the onset of puberty.

The top of the hierarchical ladder of the noble sturgeon family is rightfully occupied by a fish that surpasses its relatives not only in its gigantic size, but also in its high life expectancy. The largest beluga (not to be confused with the beluga whale) can be safely attributed to the number of centenarians of the animal world, since a hundred years of age is not uncommon for it.

Description of the species

The beginning of the evolution of sturgeon species of fish, numbering about 210 - 240 million years, is considered the Triassic period of the planet's development. The heyday of the beluga and its relatives fell on the era of dinosaurs that reigned on Earth about a hundred - two hundred million years ago. However, appearance giant fish remained virtually unchanged.

What a beluga looks like: its torpedo-shaped body is securely enclosed in a shell of bone plates, and on the sides, bone protrusions form peculiar paths. The muzzle of this fish is unusual, its appearance differs even from its closest relatives. The fused gill membranes form a free fold below the gill gap. The huge crescent-shaped mouth is bordered by a small flattened mustache with leaf-like appendages, providing the hostess with an excellently developed sense of smell. Developed coordination helps the fish to navigate in space, successfully complementing rather poor eyesight.

The color of an adult beluga is gray-brown on the back and light, almost white, on the belly.

Large, and sometimes simply huge, tasty and nutritious meat and valuable caviar provided the beluga and its numerous relatives (sturgeon, sterlet, stellate sturgeon, kaluga) with the status of commercial ones. This has brought the entire family to the brink of extinction. Human activity leads to pollution, and sometimes to the complete destruction of habitual habitats, hydraulic structures change or block the path to spawning grounds. The combination of these factors puts the beluga on the brink of extinction.

Habitat and food base

The question of what the beluga prefers to eat and where it lives is far from idle, since it allows you to find out the habits of this grandiose fish. The largest beluga is found in the waters of the Black, Mediterranean, Adriatic, Azov and Caspian Seas. During the spawning season, it can be found in almost all major rivers relating to marine basins. First of all, these are the Volga, Don, Dnieper, Kama, Terek. Ichthyologists have established one interesting feature characteristic of large female beluga. Not having time to spawn for some reason, they fall asleep, remaining to winter in the river.

The adult beluga is an absolute predator. The circle of her main gastronomic passions is as follows:

• Fish, which is the basic part of the beluga diet.
• Water worms and insects, as a rule, serve as food for small individuals.
• Mollusks and arthropods.
• Caspian seal pups. Such an unexpected object of hunting is used as food by representatives of the species that live exclusively in the Caspian Sea basin.

During a period of starvation or a heightened sense of hunger, for example, after spawning, beluga whales are able to swallow objects that do not even remotely resemble their usual food. It seems absolutely logical to return these spawning giants to the sea, because only there they can find enough food. Instances that constantly live in fresh river water are significantly inferior in size to their marine counterparts.

Reproduction of the species

Beluga spawning occurs exclusively in fresh water, for which sexually mature individuals rise high upstream. The entry of producers into the rivers differs in seasons, which makes it possible to divide the species into two races: spring and autumn. The first begins to move into fresh water already at the end of January and remains there until the very moment of spawning, which usually begins in June. The autumn race makes its ascent along the river from August to December, often remaining to winter in deep pools of the river.

Puberty in this species of sturgeon occurs quite late, and there are significant differences in timing. So, males become ready for reproduction by about twenty years, and the maturation of females ends only by 23-25.

Spawning features

Beluga spawning occurs only a few times in its entire long life, but the fecundity of this giant fish is simply amazing. Maybe that's why a unique species still inhabits the waters of our planet.

There is an opinion that the number of eggs in a clutch can reach one million. But if you rely on the facts, the picture looks like this:

• The Volga beluga is quite large by modern standards (about 2.5 meters) and lays about 940,000 eggs.
• Individuals of similar size, but living in Kura, are limited to 685,000.

The mass of spawned caviar also looks solid. Spawning masonry can weigh three to four hundred kilograms.

Ichthyologists have noticed another interesting point in the physiology of the beluga. The lack of a place suitable, according to the mother, for babies, leads to the fact that the female refuses to spawn, and the eggs that are already ready for fertilization gradually dissolve.

The spawning of this species of sturgeon is a test of the ecological well-being of the reservoir, since it occurs only in exclusively clean water. The survival rate of eggs is very low (no more than 10%), which does not contribute to the rapid replenishment of the population of this valuable fish. The incubation period is a little more than a week at a temperature of 12-14 C. Hatched fry for the first time stay on the seashore or in river deltas.

Beluga-record holders

The maximum weight of the beluga is another question not fully clarified by ichthyologists. There are records that testify to specimens weighing up to two tons. However, unfortunately, there is no documentary evidence of these facts. . So, the record holders:

The analysis shows that the vast majority of evidence of the capture of giant specimens of beluga falls on the beginning of the past - the end of the century before last. Significant changes The ecological situation that characterizes the present has led to the fact that fish of this species rarely reach gigantic sizes. The mass of the largest specimens caught over several recent years, does not exceed a quarter of a ton.

The prospect of fishing

The inclusion of this species of sturgeon in the Red Book predetermined the introduction of a ban on its industrial fishing. Therefore, the only way to get a trophy specimen is sport fishing, which involves returning the fish to its habitat.

The real danger, which constitutes a serious threat to the existence of not only the beluga, but the entire sturgeon family, is poaching. Lovers of easy money do not take into account any prohibitions, or seasonality, or the need to preserve the population.

A lot of myths and legends are associated with this outlandish fish.- for example, a belief about the miraculous properties of the "beluga stone" extracted from her kidneys and resembling in appearance egg. It is used as a talisman during a storm, it attracts fish to places visited by fishermen. The owner of such an amulet in the old days could demand for him any, even the most expensive product.

Attention, only TODAY!

Beluga is a fish that is included in the sturgeon family. Due to overfishing of the sturgeon, this species of sturgeon is endangered. Perhaps this is the most big fish, which is found in freshwater reservoirs.

Appearance

Beluga differs from other types of sturgeon in its overly large mouth, which has the shape of a half moon. The entire lower part of the snout of the beluga is occupied by the mouth of the fish. She has antennae that are flattened on the sides. And under the intergill gap there is a free fold. It is formed from gill membranes that are fused together.

There are bugs on the back of the beluga. The first bug - the one near the head, has the smallest sizes. Between the bugs on the fish skin, small granules and plates can be distinguished. And on the long mustache there are small appendages in the form of leaves. The body of the beluga is very thick, it has a cylindrical shape. The fish has a meek nose, which is compared with a pig's snout. The beluga body is painted ash-gray, but the belly is much lighter than the back. The maximum weight of a beluga can be up to 1,500 kilograms or more. In this case, the length of the body can be about 6 meters.

Distribution and migrations

It is impossible to say definitely where the beluga is found: it is an anadromous fish. It spawns in freshwater reservoirs - rivers, where it swims from the seas. Large individuals can find food only in the sea. The fish lives in the following seas: Black, Azov and Caspian. In the recent past, the number of beluga was large, but the fish is so valuable that beluga fishing did not stop. In addition, female large sturgeons are caught specifically for the collection of expensive black caviar.

In the waters of the Caspian Sea, fish can be found almost everywhere. Most of the fish for spawning swims in the Volga. The rest of the beluga swims to the Terek, Kura and Ural. In the old days, spawning fish climbed the Volga up to the city of Tver and to the headwaters of the Kama River. In the Ural River, she spawned everywhere except upstream. Beluga has also been seen near the Iranian coast of the southern Caspian, and it went to the Gorgan River to spawn. From 1961 to 1989, the fish swam to the city of Volgograd. A special fish elevator was built for her at the local hydroelectric complex. However, he worked extremely unsatisfactorily. In the end, in 1989, the USSR considered the beluga fish elevator unnecessary and stopped using it. Along the Kura River, fish approach the Kura cascade of hydroelectric power stations, which is located in Azerbaijan. Single individuals were seen in Southern Bug. Beluga has also been spotted in the Black Sea near the Crimean coast near Yalta. Here, the beluga was noticed at a depth of up to 180 meters, that is, in those places where hydrogen sulfide is present. They also noticed her near the Caucasian shores, from where she swam to spawn in the Rioni River. Near the Turkish shores, she went to spawn in the Eshilyrmak and Kyzylyrmak rivers. In the Dnieper River between Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhye, quite large specimens weighing up to 300 kilograms came across. Extreme visits of the beluga were noted near Kiev and above. On the Desna River, she sailed to Vyshenki, and on the Sozh River she sailed to Gomel. Here, in the 1870s, a fish weighing 295 kilograms was caught. Most of the beluga swim to spawn from the Black Sea to the Danube River. In the past, fish sailed along the Danube to Serbia, and in a very distant past they reached the city of Passau, which is located in Bavaria.

Diet

Big fish need a lot of food. There is not enough food in the rivers for huge sturgeons, so adults go to sea to feed. Beluga prefers to stay in the water column for different depth, which depends on the area of ​​distribution of organisms that are eaten by sturgeons. In the Black Sea, individuals penetrate to a depth of 160-180 meters, and in the Caspian Sea they are rarely found deeper than 100-140 meters. The youngest individuals of large sturgeons use invertebrates that live on the seabed as food. But as soon as the body length of the Beluga reaches 9-10 centimeters, they begin to hunt small fish. At first, Belugas prefer to live in shallow water near the mouths of rivers, which are well warmed up by the sun. As the fish grows, they move deeper into the sea.

The sizes of beluga individuals of equal age can differ significantly. It depends on nutrition. The largest are individuals that were the first to switch to food. small fish. The larger the beluga, the larger its prey becomes: anchovy, herring, sea ​​gobies and fish belonging to the carp family. Adult fish can hunt both in the water column and on the seabed.

reproduction

Beluga lives for a very long time, almost up to 100 years. However, few individuals survive to this age, as they often become the prey of fishermen. This fish, like other large and long-lived animals, is characterized by later puberty. Males become sexually mature at the age of 12 to 14 years, and females from 16 to 18 years. Individuals of the Azov beluga ripen faster than all. Those fish that have reached sexual maturity swim from the sea to the rivers, where they further breed. Migration against the flow of the river is called catadromous (from Greek it means “running up”), and migration along the flow of water is usually called anadromous (“running down”). A long time ago, the beluga traveled like this for a very long time. In the 19th century, it began its journey from the Caspian Sea, rising high along the Volga River and sailing to its tributaries. Fishermen caught this fish near Tver, in the Kama, Oka and Vyatka rivers. Depending on what time of the year the beluga entered the river, it is customary to distinguish between the autumn and spring races of this fish. The spring race enters the river at the end of January until the middle of May, and the autumn race begins its course in August and until the beginning of December. The spring run beluga spawns, as a rule, in early June of the same year, as it entered the river, and the autumn run fish spend the winter in deep river pits. Belugas of the autumn course breed in the spring of next year. The same individual reproduces with an interval of several years. For spawning, this fish chooses deep places with rocky ridges and pebble placers, where the river current is quite fast. Males arrive at the spawning grounds a little earlier than females. Beluga eggs are fertilized in the same way as in the bulk bony fish, externally. During the spawning period, fish jumping out of the water can be observed. Most likely, the fish does this in order to facilitate the release of caviar. The number of eggs hatched by the female varies from 200,000 to 8,000,000 oval eggs, which are 3.3-3.8 mm in diameter and dark gray in color. Beluga eggs are very sticky, which contributes to their good adhesion to stones. If the water temperature is between 12.6 and 13.8 degrees Celsius, then incubation period is 8 days. The fry hatched from the eggs almost instantly switch to higher nutrition. The hatched beluga fry immediately begin to roll into the sea.

The biggest fish

Beluga is the most big fish, which can be caught in fresh water. Beluga fishing has been going on for a long time. No wonder they say that "sturgeon is a royal fish." The largest beluga caught is presented in the National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan. The length of the fish was 4 meters and 17 centimeters, and the mass was equated to 1 ton.

In fact, the sturgeon from Tatarstan is not the largest sturgeon that has been caught from the river. There are cases when anglers were lucky enough to catch individuals about 9 meters in length. The mass of freshwater monsters at the same time was approximately 2 tons. At present, giant sturgeon cannot be found, since the pace of catching beluga does not allow the fish to gain a mass of more than 200 kilograms. In history, cases of catching the following record specimens are known:

• In the lower reaches of the Volga River in 1827, a beluga weighing 1,500 kilograms was caught;
• In 1992, on May 11, in the Caspian Sea, not far from the Volga mouth, a female beluga was caught, which weighed 1224 kilograms. The mass of her caviar was 146 kilograms and 500 grams, the head of the beluga weighed 288 kilograms, and the body - 667 kilograms;
• In the Caspian Sea near Biryuchaya Spit, two years later, a beluga of about the same mass as the previous one was caught. But in her body there were 246 kilograms of caviar, which amounted to almost 8 million eggs;
• Two years later, a 75-year-old beluga was caught near the mouth of the Urals. Her weight was over 1000 kilograms. The body length was 4 meters and 24 centimeters. The mass of caviar was 190 kilograms.

Beluga - a giant of the 20th century

In the autumn of 1891, water was blown away from the Taganrog Bay, owned by Sea of ​​Azov. A peasant passed by the shore, which had been freed from the water, and found that the Azov beluga was lying in a puddle. Its mass was 327 kilograms, which is equivalent to 20 pounds. The mass of beluga caviar was 49 kilograms, or 3 pounds. This Azov beluga has not such a record weight for that time, but for modern anglers, an individual of this weight would become a dream fish.

from the current ones. It is mentioned in many historical documents. In Rus', this fish, brought to the capital city from the distant Caspian Sea, was served at the table of princes and kings. There are many descriptions of fantastic specimens that reach simply incredible sizes. It is not surprising that many have the question of which of these testimonies is true and which is absolute fiction.

The largest beluga, the existence of which is confirmed by sufficient evidence, is striking in size. There are many contenders for this title, but, unfortunately, all the facts of existence giant beluga have been fixed for a long time. Nowadays, large specimens are almost never found.

king fish

Beluga is a long-lived fish. She can live a hundred years. During this time, the largest beluga can grow to a gigantic size of several meters. This species is considered one of the largest marine fish on the planet.

This fish spawns several times in its life. Experts say that the beluga eggs are also gigantic - weighing up to half a ton.

For spawning, females go to the rivers flowing into the sea, sometimes rising upstream for several kilometers. It is noteworthy that if there is no place suitable for babies, then it will not, and the caviar inside will gradually resolve.

Where does the beluga live?

The largest beluga is found in the Caspian, Black, Adriatic, Mediterranean and Azov seas.

During spawning, this fish can be found in the Volga, Terek, Don, Kama, Dnieper and many other rivers that flow into the sea. Large females, which did not have time to spawn, sometimes even remain in the rivers for the winter, falling into hibernation.

How to catch the biggest beluga?

Today, commercial fishing of this fish is prohibited. No less strict veto was imposed on the collection of beluga caviar. But the law does not prohibit sport fishing. For it, special gear is used that minimally injures the fish.

Fishing is one way to establish and document the facts. The largest beluga in the world, caught by an enthusiast in a competition, will definitely be measured, weighed, photographed, and then released back home. If this did not happen regularly, we would know about the life of these amazing fish much less.

To catch a thunderstorm of the seas and rivers, you need to swim from the sea into the river for 3 kilometers. Beluga is a voracious predator, fishermen have even found ducks and seals in her stomach more than once. When choosing a bait, you should give preference raw meat and fish. Professionals know: the beluga, although not aggressive, like, for example, a catfish, is quite capable of seriously misbehaving. In an attempt to get away from the fisherman, she can even capsize the boat.

The largest representatives: confirmed facts

The largest beluga, caught in Russia in 1922, still holds the palm. She weighed 1224 kg and was caught in the Caspian Sea. was filled with caviar. The photo of the largest beluga is simply amazing. The king fish is comparable in size to oceanic monsters: sharks, killer whales, narwhals.

Several other facts of beluga catch have been confirmed giant size. In Kazan, there is even in life weighing a whole ton. The carcass, 4.17 m long, was donated to the city by Nicholas II himself, and today a stuffed animal made from it is exhibited in the museum. Anyone can admire the huge fish.

The exhibit is a little more modest than the Kazan one in one of the museums of Astrakhan - the beluga caught in the Volga reached 966 kg. Another curious specimen during its lifetime had a length of almost 6 meters and a weight of up to a ton. His story is amazing. This beluga was caught by poachers, gutted the most valuable caviar, and the carcass was thrown away. But of course, they simply could not help but know what kind of treasure fell into their hands! Fearing arrest for illegal activities, the poachers simply called the museum and told them where they had dumped the carcass. It was damaged by careless cutting, but the taxidermists managed to make a stuffed animal out of it.

The language barrier

Sometimes confusion arises for very unusual reasons. For example, for a very long time the word "beluga" in Russian was also applied to the whale, today known as the beluga whale. Whales, of course, are larger than sturgeon fish, but this did not prevent the emergence of fantastic rumors. Eyewitness accounts of the capture of two-ton beluga most likely refer specifically to marine animals. By the way, white whales can sing. It was their singing that formed the basis of the phraseological unit “Roar like a beluga”. roar, of course, do not know how.

And in English language many sturgeon fish, including the beluga, are often denoted by one word - sturgeon. This also often confuses the question of the large beluga. Some of the declared contenders for the championship belong to other species of the Sturgeon family.

Human factor

The largest beluga caught in our time reaches only 2-3 centners. Uncontrolled fishing and caviar collection, environmental degradation, irrational use of resources - all this had a negative impact on the population. The number of beluga has decreased, the fish has become smaller, and spawning has become less frequent. The habitat has also shrunk. For spawning, the beluga goes very close to the rivers, trying to stay closer to the sea.

prospects

The largest beluga is a rarity today. Fortunately, humanity is trying to correct the mistakes of the past. Beluga is listed in the Red Book, the state is fighting against poaching. Today, the beluga is artificially bred in many countries. In Russia, several hybrids have been bred that have shown excellent viability and industrial value. This allows you to save the number of beluga in wild nature. Positive dynamics gives hope that the beautiful fish-king will not sink into oblivion in the coming years, but someday will again amaze people with their huge size.