Critically Endangered
Beluga
Huso huso
Beluga is a ray-finned fish in the family Acipenseridae (order Acipenseriformes) — Huso huso, recorded as Critically Endangered.
Appearance
The dorsal fin has 48 to 81 soft rays, and the anal fin, much shorter, has 22 to 41 soft rays. There are five in a series of longitudinal scutes: dorsal (one series, 9–17 scutes), lateral (two series, one per side, 28–60 scutes each) and ventral series (two series, one per side, 7–14 scutes each). The rostrum is conical and contains numerous sensory pits on both ventral and dorsal surfaces.
Range and habitat
Sturgeons have proven to be a durable species, able to survive some of the most altered and polluted rivers in the world. Historically, Beluga sturgeon were found in the Caspian Sea, Black Sea, Adriatic Sea, Sea of Azov, and all rivers interconnecting these waterways. Unfortunately, this range has been greatly reduced in modern times to the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea, and a few rivers such as the Danube, with attempts to reintroduce Belugas into various historic locations.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet
The prey is sucked into the mouth opening extremely quickly. Juveniles feed on benthic invertebrates in rivers and shallow coastal waters, where they grow quickly.
Different diets have been observed throughout the distribution range of Beluga sturgeon, as well as according to spawners' migration stage. Adults mainly eat a great diversity of large fish (73% of the diet). In estuaries and rivers of the same area, migrating spawners eat various cyprinids, mainly Cyprinus carpio and Rutilus rutilus, Sander lucioperca and, among sturgeons, Acipenser ruthenus is the main prey.
In crisis
Heavily fished for the female's valuable roe, known as Beluga caviar, wild populations have been greatly reduced by overfishing and poaching, leading IUCN to classify the species as critically endangered. IUCN classifies the Beluga as critically endangered. Due to aforementioned poaching of the sturgeon, the Danube is the only river remaining with naturally reproducing sturgeon populations within the European Union.
The sturgeon remains a protected species listed in Appendix III of the Bern Convention, and its trade is restricted under CITES Appendix II. The Mediterranean population is strongly protected under Appendix II of the Bern Convention, prohibiting any intentional killing of these fish.
Beluga is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Beluga, Wikidata item Q191816. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
