White sturgeon
Acipenser transmontanus
- Not on exhibit
- Animal type
- Fishes
- Ecosystem
- Coastal waters
- Relatives
- Green sturgeon, beluga sturgeon; Family: Acipenseridae
- Diet
- Shrimp, clams, crabs, worms, mussels, snails, small bony fishes
- Range
- Pacific coast of North America; Alaska Bay to northern Baja, California
- Size
- Formerly up to 20 feet (6.1 m) and 1,800 pounds (816 kg); today the largest white sturgeon grow to 10 feet (3 m) and 400 pounds (181 kg)
Meet the white sturgeon
The white sturgeon is like no other fish! Instead of scales, five rows of bony plates (scutes) reach from its gills to its tail, covering its sandpaperlike skin. It also has sharklike qualities, including a cartilaginous skeleton and a sharklike tail.
Did you know?
Mostly a bottom-dweller, a white sturgeon spends its time rummaging on the seafloor for food. Unlike most other fishes, its taste buds are on the outside of its mouth. These taste buds, along with barbels (feelers) under the sturgeon's snout, help the fish select food, and a toothless mouth sucks it up.
Conservation
In the late 1800s, commercial fisheries began to supply the demand for caviar (sturgeon eggs) and smoked sturgeon. The fisheries grew rapidly—too rapidly. They collapsed in the late 1890s due to overfishing. In 1917, California banned commercial and sport fishing of white sturgeon.
Along with overfishing, habitat destruction—including dams that close off spawning grounds—and pollution contributed to the decrease in white sturgeon populations. Management of the fisheries is improving. As of 1997 in San Francisco Bay, the white sturgeon population is now larger than it has been since the 19th century.
Environmentally safe farms now raise white sturgeon for fillets and caviar.
Up next in coastal waters
Animal
Common market squid
These iridescent, commercially-fished animals migrate in huge schools from Mexico to southeastern Alaska.
Keep exploring
Animal
Sea otter
Beyond their cute faces and fluffy fur, sea otters play an irreplaceable role in their coastal habitats.