Efforts made to re-introduce sturgeon

RIGA - Sturgeon fry numbering 1,500 were released into the Daugava River in September, reports the daily Diena. The sturgeon fry were raised at the Tome fish farm, which is a part of the BIOR scientific institute.

The Baltic Sturgeon is seen as an extinct species; however, conservationists are hopeful that this fish species could be once again re-introduced into the Daugava River.

The idea of re-introducing the Baltic Sturgeon first came up at German fish farms. “Later, Polish and Lithuanian fish farms followed, and now Latvia,” the head of the Tome fish farm Ivars Putvikis told the newspaper. He urged persons that might catch a sturgeon in the future to take a picture of it and carefully release it back into the water.

The Baltic Sturgeon became extinct mainly due to the black caviar it produces, as they were over-fished. Pollution in the Baltic Sea also had a negative influence on fish stocks. The last record of a sturgeon caught in Baltic waters was in 1996 near Estonia’s Muhu Island, Diena writes.