Sturgeon

Family Acipenseridae

REMARKS Maximum length in the Mediterranean about 350 cm, usual adult length 2 to 2½ metres. This is the species which used to be relatively common in the Mediterranean and the north-east Atlantic. The Greek name means ‘sharp-nose’ and was used in classical times.

The Mediterranean is also the home of a smaller and rare species, Acipenser naccarii Bonaparte. Not much is known about it, except that it lives mainly in inshore waters in the Adriatic. Its Italian name is storione cobice and its Serbo-Croat name jesetra tuponoska.