FAO Fisheries & Aquaculture

Print | PDF

Search species

Species Fact Sheets

Acipenser schrenckii (Brandt, 1869)

Acipenser schrenckii: (click for more)

See tree map

Synonyms

	Acipenser schrencki Brandt, 1869, (misspelling).
	Acipenser multiscutatus Tanaka, 1908:21, Plate 2, Fig.1, Iwaki Province, NW coast of Honsu (Journ.Coll.Sci.Imp.Univ.,Tokyo, 23, 7).

FAO Names

En - Amur sturgeon, Fr - , Sp - .

3Alpha Code: AAH Taxonomic Code: 1170100113

Scientific Name with Original Description
Acipenser schrenckii Brandt, 1869. Einige Worte über die europäisch-asiatischen Störarten (Sturnionides). Mélanges Biol. v. 7: 110-116. :115. Amur River and its tributaries. Also in Bull. Acad. Sci. St. Petersburg v. 14: 171-176 (1870).

Diagnostic Features

Head with longitudinal depression dorsally. Snout short and fairly blunt. Snout and caudal peduncle subconical. Spiracle present. Gill membranes joined to isthmus. Mouth transverse. D:38-53; A:20-35. 11-16 dorsal scutes. 32-47 lateral scutes. 7-16 ventral scutes. Dorsal and lateral scutes with median longitudinal crest, without distinct spine. One small plate behind 4th to 7th dorsal scutes. Lateral scutes somewhat separate with one small plate anterior to first. 4 to 5 scutes behind dorsal fin. 3 scutes behind anal fin and two large ones anterior to it. Skin covered with fairly sparse, very small stellate platelets, among which are no large ones.

Geographical Distribution

Launch the Aquatic Species Distribution map viewer

Map legend

Endemic to the Amur River basin.

Habitat and Biology

The Amur sturgeon is represented by two morphs: gray, common, and brown, rare. Young and adults of the brown morph inhabit the middle and lower reaches of the Amur River. The gray morph inhabits the Amur River basin from its upper reaches to the mouth, but they not enter in the sea.Zoobenthos: molluscs and larvae of the Arctic lamprey, Lampetra japonica.
Most gray morphs individuals mature at an age of 10-14 years and females reproduce at least every four years. Both morphs begin to migrate to the spawning grounds in autumn.
Spawning takes place in the spring on pebble depositsin the main river bed (Krykhtin & Svirskii, 1997). To Wei et al. (1997), males mature at age 7 to 8 years with a size of about 103 cm, while females mature at 9 to 10 years at about 105 cm TL and the spawning take place between May and July at water temperatures from 15º to 20º C.

Size
Maximum size: about 3 m at an age of more than 60 years (Krykhtin & Svirskii, 1997)

Interest to Fisheries

Global Capture production for
Acipenser schrenckii
(FAO Fishery Statistic)

Commercial: highly prized fish.

Endangered, on the verge of extinction in some areas. Now the lower Amur population of the Amur sturgeon comprises about 95.000 fish greater than age two years (Krykhtin & Svirskii, 1997).

Related Fishing Techniques

Local Names

GERMANY : Amurstör .

JAPAN : Amûru-chozâme .

POLAND : Jesiotr amurski .

RUSSIAN FED. : Amurskii asetr .

UNITED KINGDOM : Amur sturgeon .

USA : Amur sturgeon .

Remarks
Acipenser multiscutatus requires revision, since it is most improbable that sturgeons absent from continental waters exist only in Japan (Artyukhin & Andronov, 1990). According to Birstein & Bemis (1997), A. multiscutatus Tanaka, 1908 is most probably a synonym of A. schrenckiiBrandt, 1869.

Bibliography

Artyukhin, E.N. & A.E. Andronov - 1990. A morphological study of the Green sturgeon Acipenser medirostris (Chondrostei, Acipenseridae), from the Tumnin (Datta) River and some aspects of the ecology and zoogeography of Acipenseridae. J. Ichthyol. . 30 (7): 11-21..

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

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

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

Bogutskaya, N. G & A. M. Naseka. - 1996. Cyclostomata and fishes of Khanka Lake drainage area (Amur Riber Basin) an annotated check-list with comments on taxonomy and zoogeography of the region. Gosniourku and Zin Ran. St. Petersburg. Fish. Khanka Lake. . : 1-89.. Ref ID: 22798

Dulmaa, A. - 1999. Fish and fisheries in Mongolia. FAO Fisheries and Technical Paper. No. 385. Rome, FAO. . pp. 187-236..

Krykhtin, M.L. & V.G. Svirskii - 1997. Endemic sturgeons of the Amur River: kaluga, Huso dauricus, and Amur sturgeon, Aciperser schrenckii. Environm. Biol. Fish. . 48:231-239..

Lindberg, G.U & M.I. Legeza - 1965. Fishes of the Sea of Japan and adjacent areas of the Okhotsk and Yellow Seas. Pt.2: 1-391.. Moscow, Leningrad

Masuda, H, K. Amaoka, C. Araga, T. Uyeno & T. Yoshino - 1984. The fishes of the Japanese Archipelago. Tokai Univ. Press. Fish. Japanese Arch. . Text: i-xxii + 1-437, Atlas: Pls. 1-370..

Reshetnikov, Yu. S., N. G. Bogutskaya, D. E. Vasil'eva, E. A. Dorofeyeva, A. M. Naseka & et al. - 1997. An annotated Check-List of the freshwater fishes of Russia. J. Ichthyol. . 37 (9):687-736..

Wei, Q., F. Ke, J. Zhang, P. Zhuang, J. Luo, R. Zhou & W. Yang - 1997. Biology, fisheries, and conservation of sturgeons and paddlefish in China. Environm. Biol. Fish. . 48: 241-255..

Zhu, S.-Q. - 1995. Synopsis of freshwater fishes of China. Jiangsu Science and Technology Publishing House. . i-v + 1-549.. In Chinese, English summ.

Zhuang, P., F. Ke, Q. Wei, X. He & Y. Cen - 1997. Biology and life history of Dabry's sturgeon, Acipenser dabryanus, in the Yangtze River. Environ. Biol. Fish. . 48: 257-264..



Home	About us	Activities	Statistics	GeoInfo	Meetings and News	Publications	Fact Sheets

Logon name:
Password:
×