Role of Aquaculture in Recovery of North American Sturgeons

Aquaculture benefits the recovery of threatened sturgeons, as it generates new knowledge of sturgeon physiology, neurobiology, behavior, genetics and genomics, which are essential disciplines for a successful restoration program. The aquaculture industry and researchers continue to improve reproductive staging and breeding protocols, and hatcheries use these techniques in recovery of threatened species and populations of wild sturgeon.  Worldwide, the commercial sturgeon farms have increased production of sturgeon and caviar, with no negative effects on natural populations because the broodfish are usually captive farm stocks. In recent years, contribution of sturgeon farms to the world caviar trade has exceeded that of the commercial capture fisheries, indicating that such fisheries may soon be replaced with the farm produced sturgeon products. We will discuss the effects of aquaculture on the wild populations of sturgeon and paddlefish, as well as provide examples of how it has been applied to the recovery of native sturgeon stocks.