Sturgeon are very rarely, if ever, caught nowadays from any English river, though up to the eighteenth century they were caught quite plentifully in the Tyne and the Severn and sometimes in the Thames. At one time, the sturgeon was called the royal fish and might only be served at the king’s table and to some who had his permission to eat it. Nowadays it is occasionally imported, and this is the traditional way to cook and serve it.