Beluga fish. Description of a freshwater inhabitant. Beluga dimensions and weight The largest beluga in the world

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 is a very large fish, it can only find enough food for itself 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 kind 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 small. 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 grown up to 5-8 cm beluga with pleasure 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 is a unique fish that lives for a very long time, and its maximum age can reach hundreds of years. She can spawn more than once in her life, and after spawning she rolls into the sea. The fecundity of females depends on their size and sometimes reaches about 500,000 eggs.

In nature, the beluga, the photo of which can be viewed below, is an independent species, however, it can hybridize with sturgeon, sterlet, spike and stellate sturgeon. Sturgeon species hybrids are best grown in special pond farms.

With this amazing fish connected many legends and myths. For example, ancient fishermen said that the beluga stone very well protects a person from a storm during a sea voyage and attracts a catch. This stone, according to fishermen, can be found in the kidneys of the beluga, and it looks like egg. Its owner in ancient times could exchange a stone for any expensive product. This legend is still believed, although there is no exact information about the reality of the stone.

Beluga differs from other sturgeons incredibly big mouth in the shape of a crescent, as evidenced by numerous photos. She also has a mustache that is flattened on the sides. In the interbranchial space there is a fold formed from membranes fused together.

There are bugs on the back, the first of which is located near the head and is small in size compared to the rest. On a long mustache, small appendages are noted that differ in shape, like a leaf.

The body is incredibly thick and cylindrical in shape, and the nose is very short, which is why it is compared with the snout of a pig. The body is painted in an ash-gray shade, and its belly is slightly lighter. The maximum weight can be approximately 1500 kilograms with a body length of up to six meters.

Habitat and migration of fish

There is no specific habitat for the beluga, because she is considered a passerby. Spawning takes place in water bodies fresh water into which fish enter from the sea. A large individual finds food only in the sea (Black, Caspian and Azov). More recently, the number of fish was huge and they did not stop catching it. To collect priceless caviar, females were more often caught.

In the Caspian Sea, the beluga can be found almost everywhere, and for spawning, it swims to the Volga, the Urals, the Terek and the Kura. It also happened that from 1961 to 1989, fish even swam up to Volgograd, in connection with which a fish elevator was built there, old photos of which can be viewed on the Internet.

Beluga seen in the Black Sea near the Crimean coast where there is hydrogen sulfide. Sufficiently large individuals were seen near Zaporozhye and Dnepropetrovsk - their weight was approximately 300 kilograms.

What does a beluga eat

As a rule, big fish require a lot of food, and there is not enough food for them in the river. That is why, in search of food, she goes to sea. This fish is most often located in the water column at any depth. The main thing is that there are enough organisms suitable for nutrition. In the Black Sea, individuals live at a depth of up to 180 meters, and in the Caspian - up to 140 meters. Younger individuals use invertebrates from the bottom of the sea as food. As soon as the Belugas reach a size of ten centimeters, they begin to hunt for small brothers. You can see how the process of their nutrition goes on in the photo and video on the Internet.

The largest individuals those who eat are counted small fish, such as:

• Sea goby;
• Anchovy;
• Herring;
• Individuals of the carp family.

Fish breeding methods

Beluga males fully mature sexually at 14 years old, and females at 18 years old. Fish that have reached puberty swim from the sea to freshwater bodies for the purpose of reproduction. Depending on the time when the beluga enters the river, distinguish between autumn and spring races:

• The spring swims into the rivers from the end of January and stays there until May. She starts spawning already in June;
• Autumn enters the reservoir in August and remains there until December. As a rule, it winters in deep river pits, and begins to breed in the spring.

Fertilization of beluga eggs occurs in the same way as in other bone species - externally. During the spawning period, fishermen note the jumping of fish from the reservoir, and many capture it in the photo. Experts suggest that she does this to facilitate the release of caviar. The number of eggs varies in the region of 200,000 - 8,000,000 pieces. Since the eggs are sticky, they adhere very well to the stones. At an air temperature of 12.6-13.8 degrees, the incubation period lasts about eight days, and the fry hatch almost immediately and roll into the sea.

Beluga is the largest fish

Catching this unique fish carried out for a very long time, so it is not for nothing that called the royal fish. The largest fish caught, 4.17 meters long and weighing about 1 ton, is presented in the Museum of Tatarstan. Those who do not have the opportunity to admire this "miracle" live can look at the fish in the photo.

Of course, this beluga is not the largest, since there are known cases of catching a nine-meter individual weighing about 2 tons. Today, it is impossible to catch such a huge fish, because the pace of catching it does not allow the beluga to quickly gain such a mass.

Unique beluga fish

Beluga - the largest freshwater fish, is now under the threat of destruction. Man illegally beats her for the sake of valuable caviar, changes the usual ways of spawning, destroys and pollutes habitats. Like many other endangered species, the beluga is truly unique. Why is this so, and which beluga is the largest in the world - read about this in the article.

Description of the species

In the numerous family of sturgeons, which includes 27 species, there are many giants. Partly for their size, as well as for the value and nutritional value of their meat and caviar, these fish have earned the status of commercial fish. Sturgeons inhabit the waters of the Northern Hemisphere. The evolution of these species goes back to the Triassic period and has 208-245 million years. Their heyday fell on the period of 100-200 million years ago, when the earth was still inhabited by dinosaurs. Since then, their appearance has not changed much.

Apart in their family is the beluga (lat. Huso huso). Not only is she the record holder for longevity - individuals over 100 years old are known, but also in size. Beluga is deservedly considered the largest freshwater fish. The weight of the largest specimens caught reached one and a half tons! Body sizes on average range from 2 to 4 meters, although individuals up to 9 m long have also been described.

Beluga does not look quite normal. Looking at it, you can understand a lot about the times of the dinosaurs. The fish body is as if enclosed in a shell of bone, and paths of sharp bone protrusions stretch along the sides. The mouth of the beluga is framed by antennae, which are responsible for the sense of smell - it is excellent in these fish. And this predator has no teeth. The color of the body is dark gray, with a greenish tint, the belly is almost white.

Beluga grows all its life, and since it can live a lot, then it will have the appropriate size. Unfortunately, in our time, due to uncontrolled capture, habitat pollution, changes in habitual migration routes and a general deterioration in the ecological situation, the life expectancy of the beluga has been greatly reduced.

habitats

This giant is found in the Black, Caspian and Seas of Azov. For spawning, it rises along the Volga to the upper reaches of the Kama. Beluga was also found in the Danube, until a hydroelectric power station was built on this river, and spawning routes were blocked.

Nutrition

Beluga is a predatory fish. She can eat mollusks, worms, insects, but her predominant “dish” is fish. Even beluga fry are predators. Large beluga can even swallow baby seals - they are sometimes found in the stomachs of the Caspian representatives of the species. Feeling hungry after spawning, beluga females grab even inedible objects: snags, stones.

Such gigantic creatures can find enough food only in the sea, those subspecies that prefer to live in fresh water do not reach huge sizes.

reproduction

The beluga emerges from the sea and rises high up the rivers to spawn. They spawn only in fresh water, but they can live in both fresh and salt water. Beluga spawning occurs several times in a lifetime. After spawning, she rolls back into the sea.

Belugas take a long time to reach sexual maturity. Males mature in the second ten years of life, and females generally only by the age of 22-25.

Sturgeon fish are unusually prolific, depending on the size of the fish, the number of eggs can vary from 500 thousand to a million. There is evidence that large, by today's standards, 2.5-2.6 m long, the Volga beluga spawns an average of 937 thousand eggs, and the same size Kura - an average of 686 thousand. The fry keep in the delta and on the seaside.

Belugas can spawn only in very clean water. If the reservoir is polluted, the females refuse to spawn, and the eggs that have matured in their bodies are absorbed after a while. The presence of a beluga in a reservoir indicates a favorable environment and a good ecological situation.

Most individuals are caught by poachers while still young, having just reached puberty, which means that they have time to spawn only once. The survival rate of eggs and fry is only 10% of the total number of spawned eggs, so the beluga population is very poorly replenished.

Normally, spawning occurs in one individual up to 10 times in a lifetime, since due to its size and life expectancy, it needs 2 to 4 years to recover between spawning periods.

record holders

Some of the specimens caught are really striking in their size. Many of them have records confirming their size and weight. Who is the champion among beluga:

• There is evidence of beluga whales weighing 2 tons and reaching 9 m, but they are not documented;
• In 1827, in the lower reaches of the Volga, a beluga weighing 90 pounds / 1.5 tons / 9 m long was caught, according to "Studies on the state of fisheries in Russia" dated 1861;

On May 11, 1922, a female beluga weighing 1224 kg was caught in the Caspian Sea, 146.5 kg of caviar were found in it, her head weighed 288 kg, and her body - 667 kg.

Beluga of the same size was also caught in the Caspian Sea in 1924, they found 246 kg of caviar in it.

At the beginning of the 20th century, in the lower reaches of the Volga, a beluga 4.17 m long and weighing a ton was mined. Her age was estimated at 60-70 years. A stuffed animal of this individual is now kept in the National Museum of Tatarstan in Kazan;

Another stuffed beluga, which weighed 966 kg and grew to 4 m 20 cm, is presented in the Astrakhan Museum. This fish was also caught in the Volga Delta in 1989, moreover, by poachers. Having taken out the caviar, they anonymously reported such an extraordinary prey. A truck was needed to transport the carcass. Her age was estimated at 70-75 years.

At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries, there are many evidences of the capture of fish weighing 500-800 kg. Currently, due to various adverse factors, beluga rarely reach over 250 kg. An interesting fact is that all the largest beluga are females. Beluga males are always much smaller than females.

Recently, commercial fishing of this fish has been banned, and it is included in the Red Book of Threatened Species. Despite this, poachers deftly circumvent all prohibitions, because the price of beluga caviar on the black market in Russia reaches $600 per kilogram, and $7,000 abroad!

Poaching is much more dangerous than industrial fishing, since it does not take into account either seasonality or population conservation, and, probably, in the not too distant future, such a unique species can be completely exterminated and descendants will know about it only from evidence in the archives.

They say that this is the king-beluga. And on the Internet, a new MEM has already broken out in the likeness of a sad cat and a stoned fox - a sad fish. Let's find out more about her...

This is the Astrakhan Museum of Local Lore.

The Astrakhan Museum has two record sturgeons, - one 4-meter (slightly smaller than the one that Nicholas II presented to the Kazan Museum) and the largest - 6-meter. the largest beluga, six meters long. They caught her at the same time as a four-meter one, in 1989. The poachers caught the world's largest beluga, gutted the caviar, and then called the museum and said where you can pick up a "fish" the size of a huge truck.

Stuffed Beluga, Huso huso
Type: stuffed animal
Author: Golovachev V.I.
Dating: The stuffed animal was made in 1990.
Size: length - 4 m 20 cm, weight - 966 kg
Description: Beluga - valuable commercial fish sturgeon family, common in the basins of the Caspian, Black, Azov seas. In 1989 it was caught by fishermen. Weight 966 kg, caviar weight 120 kg, age 70-75 years, length 4 m 20 cm. The stuffed animal was made by taxidermist Golovachev V.I. in 1990
Organization: Astrakhan Museum of Local Lore

Existing for over 200 million years, sturgeons are close to extinction today. The Danube, in the region of Romania and Bulgaria, has one of the most viable wild sturgeon populations in Europe. Danube sturgeons are one of the most important indicators of a healthy ecosystem. Most of them live in the Black Sea and migrate up the Danube to spawn. They reach 6 meters in length and live up to 100 years.

Illegal fishing and barbaric extermination, mainly for caviar, is one of the main dangers threatening sturgeons. Habitat loss and disruption of sturgeon migration routes is another big threat to this unique species. By founding, with the participation of the European Community, the Life + programme, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), with the support of others international organizations V last years working on these issues.

Type and origin

Sturgeon breeds include: beluga, stellate sturgeon, sturgeon, sterlet. In the fossil state, sturgeon fish are known only from the Eocene (85.8-70.6 million years ago). In zoogeographical terms, representatives of the subfamily of shovel-nosed-like are very interesting, which are found on the one hand in Central Asia, on the other hand, in North America, which allows you to see modern types this genus is the remains of a previously widespread fauna. Sturgeons are one of the most unique and attractive species of ancient fish. They have existed for more than 200 million years, and have lived since the time when dinosaurs inhabited our planet. From their unusual appearance, in their robes of bone plates, they remind us of ancient times, when special armor or a strong carapace was needed in order to survive. They have survived to this day, almost unchanged.

Alas, today existing species sturgeon fish are endangered or even endangered.

Sturgeons are the largest freshwater fish

Beluga book of records

Beluga is not only the largest of the sturgeons, but also the largest fish caught in fresh waters. There are cases when specimens up to 9 meters long and weighing up to 2000 kg came across. Today, individuals weighing more than 200 kg are rarely seen, transitions to spawning have become too dangerous.
In "Research on the state of fisheries in Russia", in 1861, it was reported about a beluga caught in 1827 in the lower reaches of the Volga, which weighed 1.5 tons.

On May 11, 1922, in the Caspian Sea, near the mouth of the Volga, a female weighing 1224 kilograms was caught, while 667 kilograms fell on her body, 288 kilograms on her head, and 146.5 kilograms on caviar (see photo). Once again, a female of the same size was caught in 1924 in the Caspian Sea near the Biryuchaya Spit, the caviar in it was 246 kilograms, and the total number of eggs was about 7.7 million.

A little to the east, before the mouth of the Urals, on May 3, 1926, a 75-year-old female weighing more than 1 ton and 4.24 meters long was caught, in which there were 190 kilograms of caviar. The National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan in Kazan presents a stuffed beluga 4.17 meters long, mined in the lower reaches of the Volga at the beginning of the 20th century. Its weight when caught was about 1000 kilograms, the age of the fish is 60-70 years.

In October 1891, when the wind stole water from the Taganrog Bay of the Sea of ​​Azov, a peasant passing by the bare shore found a beluga in one of the puddles, pulling 20 pounds (327 kg), of which 3 pounds (49 kg) fell on caviar.

Lifestyle

All sturgeons migrate long distances for spawning and in search of food. Some migrate between salt and fresh water, while others live only in fresh water all their lives. They breed in fresh waters and have a long life cycle as they take years, sometimes decades, to reach maturity when they are first able to produce offspring. While the annual successful spawning is almost unpredictable, and depends on the available range, suitable current and temperature, specific spawning sites, periodicity and migration are predictable. Natural crossing is possible between any species of sturgeon. In addition to the spring move to the rivers for spawning, sturgeon fish sometimes enter the rivers also in autumn - for wintering. These fish tend to stay near the bottom.

According to the method of feeding, the beluga is a predator, feeding mainly on fish, but also on mollusks, worms, and insects. Begins to prey even as a fry in the river. In the sea, it feeds mainly on fish (herring, sprats, gobies, etc.), but does not neglect mollusks. In the stomachs of the Caspian beluga, even pups (babies) of a seal were found.

Beluga takes care of her offspring

Beluga is a long-lived fish reaching the age of 100 years. Unlike Pacific salmon, which die after spawning, beluga, like other sturgeons, can spawn many times in a lifetime. After spawning, they migrate back to the sea. Caspian beluga males reach puberty at the age of 13-18 years, and females - at 16-27 (mainly at 22-27) years. The fertility of the beluga, depending on the size of the female, ranges from 500 thousand to a million (in exceptional cases - up to 5 million) eggs.
Beluga in nature independent view, but can hybridize with sterlet, stellate sturgeon, spike and sturgeon. With the help of artificial insemination, viable hybrids were obtained - beluga-sterlet (bester). Sturgeon hybrids are successfully grown in pond (aquaculture) farms.

There are many myths and legends associated with the beluga. For example, in ancient times, fishermen talked about the miraculous biluzhin stone, which is able to heal a person from any disease, protect from troubles, save the ship from a storm and attract a good catch.

The fishermen believed that this stone can be found in the kidneys of a large beluga, and it is the size of a chicken egg - flat and oval in shape. The owner of such a stone could exchange it for a very expensive product, but it is still not clear whether such stones really existed, or the craftsmen forged them. Even today, some anglers continue to believe this.
Another legend that at one time surrounded the beluga with an ominous halo is the poison of the beluga. Some considered the liver of young fish or the meat of the beluga to be poisonous, which could go astray, like a cat or a dog, as a result of which its meat became poisonous. Evidence for this has not yet been found.

The now almost extinct beluga. Not a particularly large specimen for this species.

Sturgeon habitats in the past and present

Their distribution is limited to the northern hemisphere, where they inhabit rivers and seas in Europe, Asia, and North America.
Although there are more than 20 different sturgeon species around the world with different biological and ecological requirements, they all have similar characteristics.
Anadromous fish living in the Caspian, Azov and Black Seas enters the rivers for spawning. Previously, the beluga was relatively numerous, but over time, its stocks became very scarce.
The Danube and the Black Sea at one time were the most active region for the distribution of a wide variety of beluga - up to 6 different species. Currently, one of the species is completely lost, and the remaining five are endangered.

In the Caspian Sea, the beluga is ubiquitous. For spawning, it enters mainly the Volga, in much smaller quantities - the Urals and the Kura, as well as the Terek. On Far East Amur sturgeon lives. Almost all water bodies in Russia are suitable for sturgeon species. In the old days, sturgeons were caught even in the Neva.

Overfishing and the black market for caviar

Overfishing - once legal but now illegal - is one of the direct threats to the survival of the Danube sturgeons. Because of their long life cycle, and late maturity, sturgeons are particularly vulnerable to overfishing, whose stock takes many years to recover.
In 2006, Romania was the first country to announce a ban on sturgeon fishing. The ten-year ban will expire at the end of 2015. Following the appeal of the EU, Bulgaria also announced a ban on sturgeon fishing. Despite the ban, poaching seems to be still widespread throughout the Danube region, although concrete evidence of illegal fishing is difficult to obtain. It is well known that the black market for caviar is thriving. One reason for overfishing is the high price of caviar. Illegally harvested caviar in Bulgaria and Romania can also be bought in other EU countries. Thanks to the first study of the caviar black market, conducted in Bulgaria and Romania in 2011-2012, experts from the World Wide Fund for Nature were able to trace the distribution of smuggled goods in Europe.

Danube beluga, the same age as dinosaurs

Iron Gate Dam disrupted migration routes

Migration for spawning is one of the most important parts of the natural life cycle of all sturgeons in the Danube. In the past, the beluga rose up the river to Serbia, and in the distant past it even reached Passau in eastern Bavaria, but now its path is artificially blocked already on the middle Danube.

Located below the Iron Gates, in the narrow Jardap Gorge between Romania and Serbia, the Iron Gates hydroelectric power plant and reservoir are the largest along the Danube. The hydroelectric power plant was built at 942 and 863 kilometers of the river upstream of the Danube Delta. As a result, by limiting the sturgeon migration path at 863 kilometers, and completely cutting off the most important spawning area on the middle Danube. As a result, the sturgeons found themselves locked in the section of the river in front of the dam, and now they are no longer able to continue their natural path, familiar to them for thousands of years, to the spawning site. Trapped in such unnatural conditions, the sturgeon population suffers the negative effects of inbreeding and loses genetic variability.

Beluga range on the Danube lost

Sturgeons are very sensitive to changes in their range. These changes immediately affect spawning, wintering, the possibility of finding good food and, ultimately, lead to the extinction of the genus. Most sturgeon species spawn on the clear pebbly edge of the lower Danube, where they lay their eggs before returning to the Black Sea. Successful spawning must be carried out at great depths at a temperature of at least 9-15 degrees.
The sturgeon population has suffered greatly as a result of the loss of the original and corresponding to this species habitat on the Danube. The strengthening of the banks and the division of the river into channels, the construction of powerful engineering structures that protect against floods, reduced by 80% the natural floodplains and wetlands that were part of the river system. Navigation is also one of the major threats to the sturgeon range, mainly as a result of activities that include dredging and dredging on the river. Extraction of sand and gravel, soil changes produced by the underwater part of the vessel also have a detrimental effect on the sturgeon population in the Danube.

The threat of extinction of the Danube sturgeon is so great that if urgent and radical measures are not taken, then in a few decades this majestic silvery fish can only be seen in museums. That is why the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube, together with World Foundation nature and the European Commission, within the framework of the European Community Strategy for the Danube region, are conducting a number of projects and international studies in order to develop measures to save the Danube beluga.

Beluga is the largest fish of the sturgeon family, living in the Caspian, Black and Azov seas and entering nearby rivers for spawning. Under favorable conditions, she can live for more than 100 years and at the same time, unlike her Pacific relatives, she does not die after spawning. Accordingly, it has been growing all this time, and I think it will be interesting for everyone to find out what size the largest beluga in the world reached.

The most large beluga- this is necessarily a female, since males are almost twice as small. The fish reaches puberty from the age of 16, but more often after 20. Black caviar makes up about 20% of the total body and contains from 500 thousand eggs (in the largest - 5-7 million). And spawning does not occur simultaneously, but during 3 spring months. Therefore, for caviar hunters, the beluga is always desirable - for which it paid.

Now this fish is listed in the Red Book because of its value - black caviar, the main delicacy. You will not find it on the official sale, but on the black market in Russia, a kilogram of caviar costs from $600, and abroad - from $7,000.

Even under the most favorable conditions, 90% of eggs do not grow into adults. Plus, people in the last century “took care” that in some rivers the beluga disappeared completely (for example, before the construction of dams on the Dnieper, it rose to Zaporozhye and some specimens were caught even near Kiev) and now the situation is everywhere more than deplorable. But the beluga has always been an indicator of the health of the ecosystem.

Poachers and hydroelectric power plants prevent the fish from growing and the largest individual caught in the last 50 years was a fish weighing 800 kg in 1970 and 960 kg in 1989. A effigy of the last length of 4.2 m and an age of about 70 years is now kept in the Astrakhan Museum. The fish was caught by poachers, the eggs were gutted, and an anonymous call was made to inform them of a trophy that needed a truck to transport. To date, the largest beluga in the world and you can find a video about it on YouTube, where they show a specimen weighing about 500 kg.

The book "Research on Fisheries in Russia" reports that the largest beluga caught in the Volga was about 9 meters long and weighed 90 pounds (1440 kg). Such an individual claims to be the largest freshwater fish on Earth, it is a pity that the photo of the largest beluga was not preserved to confirm the record, as it happened in 1827.

In 1922 and 1924, identical fish were caught near the mouth of the Volga and in the Caspian - 75 pounds (1224 kg) each, where the body weighed about 700 kg, the head weighed 300 kg, and the rest was caviar. The National Museum of Kazan keeps a 4-meter effigy of a fish caught in the lower reaches of the Volga. Her age is 60-70 years.

It should be remembered that the largest beluga in the world is the one that was caught and officially recorded. But the fishermen met specimens for which they did not have enough gear or strength, and they safely died in their midst, giving rise to numerous legends about river monsters. Which, by the way, have every reason, because in the stomachs of the caught Caspian predators, seal cubs have been found more than once (the length is from a meter) ..