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Acipenser naccarii (Bonaparte, 1836)

Acipenser naccarii: (click for more)

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Synonyms

	Acipenser huso Linnaeus, 1758:238.
	Acipenser naccari Bonaparte, 1836, pl. 129 f.2 (North Adriatic).
	Acipenser heckelli Fitzinger and Heckel, 1836:303.
	Acipenser nardoi Heckel, 1851: 551-557.
	Acipenser nasus Heckel, 1851: 551-557.

FAO Names

En - Adriatic sturgeon, Fr - Esturgeon de l'Adriatique, Sp - Esturión del Adriático.

3Alpha Code: AAA Taxonomic Code: 1170100103

Scientific Name with Original Description
Accipenser naccarii Bonaparte C. L., 1836. Iconografia della fauna italica per le quattro classi degli animali vertebrati. Tomo III. Pesci. Iconografia, v. 3. Fasc. 15-18, puntate 80-93, pl. 129 f.2- North Adriatic. Roma.

Diagnostic Features

Head length, 20.8-22.2 % of TL. Snout rather short, less than 60 % of head length, wide and more or less rounded at tip. Its upper profile usually slightly concave. Spiracle present. Snout and caudal peduncle subconical. Gill membranes joined to isthmus. Mouth transverse and lower lip with a split in the middle. Barbels not fringed and inserted closer to the end of the snout than to the mouth. Outer barbels slightly longer, sometimes nearly reaching the upper lip. 30-35 gill rakers terminated by a single tip. Dorsal fin rays: 36-48; Anal fin rays: 24-31. 10-14 dorsal scutes (their medial spine blunts with age). Lateral scutes 32-42. Ventral scutes 8-11. Colouration variable: back greyish-brown, olive-brown or almost black. Flanks lighter, belly paler or whitish. Lateral scutes a little paler than the background (Tortonese, 1989).

Geographical Distribution

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Adriatic Sea, Po and Adige Rivers (Birstein et al., 1997). See remarks.

Habitat and Biology

Virtually nothing is known about the biological features of this species. The Adriatic sturgeon is a diadromus species, spawning in fresh water after a marine period of growth during which it remains near the shore, at the mouths of rivers, between 10 to 40 m. The upstream migration into Italian rivers occurs during the first months of the year.Over sandy or muddy bottoms.Benthic invertebrates and fishes.
The eggs are usually laid in still waters along the borders of rivers, but they are said to be occasionally deposited in brakish water not far from the sea. It remains in freshwater until October.

Size
To 200 cm TL, but usually much smaller: to 150 cm TL and 20-25 Kg (Bini, 1970).

Interest to Fisheries
This fish has little commercial value. Only the flesh is used.

Local Names

ALBANIA : Blini i bardhe .

FRANCE : Esturgeon de l'Adriatique .

ITALY : Storione cobice .

POLAND : Jesiotr adriatycki .

PORTUGAL : Esturjao-adriátici .

RUSSIAN FED. : Adriaticheskyi osetr .

SLOVENIA : Jadranska jesetra .

SPAIN : Esturión del Adriático .

UNITED KINGDOM : Adriatic sturgeon .

USA : Adriatic sturgeon .

Remarks

According to Tortonese (1989), A. naccarii may be only a subespecies of A. gueldenstaedtii: the ranges of its meristic characters coincide and, according to Vlasenko et al. (1989), the karyotype pattern seems to be similar in both. Hernando et al. (1999), consider that, in the past, the distribution of A. naccariiincluded the Iberian Peninsula, but Rincón (2000) concludes that there is no morphological evidence to support the claimed autocthonous status of A. naccariiin the Iberian Peninsula.

Bibliography

Bauchot, M.-L. - 1987. Poissons osseux. In W. Fischer, M.L. Bauchot and M. Schneider eds.) Fiches FAO d'identification pour les besoins de la pêche. (rev. 1). Méditerranée et mer Noire. Zone de pêche 37. Vol. II. Commission des Communautés Européennes and FAO, Rome. . p. 891-1421..

Berg, L.S. - 1962. Freshwater fishes of the U.S.S.R. and adjacent countries.Volume 1.Israel Program for Scientific Translations Ltd, Jerusalem. 4th edition. . Russian version published 1948.

Bini, G. - 1970. Atlante dei pesci delle coste italiane. Vol. 2. Mondo Sommerso, Milano. .

Birstein, V.J. - 1993. Sturgeons and paddlefishes: threatened fishes in need of conservation. Conserv. Biol. . 7:773-787..

Birstein, V.J. & W.J. Bemis. - 1997. How many species are there within the genus Acipenser? Environ. Biol. Fish. . 48: 157-163..

Blanc, M., J.L. Gaudet, P. Banarescu & J.C. Hureau. - 1971. European inland water fish: a multilingual catalogue. Fishing News (Books) Ltd. London. .

Crespo, J., J. Gajate & R. Ponce. - 2001. Clasificación científica e identificación de nombres vernáculos existentes en la base de datos de seguimiento informático de recursos naturales oceánicos. Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Madrid, Spain. .

Hernando, J.A., E.D.Vasil'eva, J. Artali, V.P. Vasili'ev, J.A. Santiago, L. Belysheva-Polyakova, A. Domezain & M.C. Soriger. - 1999. New evidence for a wider historical area of two species of European sturgeons: Accipenser naccarii and Huso huso (Acipenseridae). J. Ichthyol. . 39 (9): 803-806..

Hilton-Taylor, C. - 2000. 2000 IUCN red list of threatened species. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK. . xviii + 61 p.. with 1 CD-ROM.

Rincón, P.A. - 2000. Putative morphometric evidence of the presence of Acipenser naccarii Bonaparte, 1836 in Iberian rivers, or why ontogenic allometry needs adequate treatment. Bol. Ins. Esp. Oceanogr. . 16 (1-4): 217-229..

Soljan, T. - 1975. I pesci dell'Adriatico. Arnoldo Mondadori, Verona, Italy.

Svetovidov, A.N. - 1984. Acipenseridae. In P.J.P. Whitehead, M.-L. Bauchot, J.-C. Hureau, J. Nielsen and E. Tortonese (eds.) Fishes of the north-eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean. UNESCO, Paris. vol. 1. . p. 220-225..

Svetovidov, A.N. - 1979. Acipenseridae. In J.C. Hureau and Th. Monod (eds.) Check-list of the fishes of the north-eastern Atlantic and of the Mediterranean (CLOFNAM). UNESCO, Paris. Vol. 1. . p. 82-84..

Tortonese, E. - 1989. Acipenser naccarii Bonaparte, 1836. In The Freshwater Fishes of Europe, Vol.1, Part II: General Introduction to Fishes. Acipenseriformes . 284-293.. (Ed. J. Holcík) AULA-Verlag Wiesbaden.

Vlasenko, A.D., A.V. Pavlov & V.P. Vasilev. - 1989. Acipenser gueldenstaedti Brand, 1833. In The Freshwater Fishes of Europe, Vol.1, Part II: General Introduction to Fishes. Acipenseriformes. . 294-345.. (Ed. J. Holcík) AULA-Verlag Wiesbaden.



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