Dear friends & colleagues,

Please see below the message of Hungarian ichthyologist and friend, Zoltan Sallai, about the lucky capture of live specimen of elusive (Acipenser nudiventris) ship sturgeon, on Dec. 2, 2009 in a wintering hole (18 m) in the Danube River, near Mohacs, Hungary. The fish is a male, TW = 22 kg, TL= 140 cm.

The fish was transported and is kept at the Hungarian Fishery Research Institute, HAKI in Szarvas. Now, we only need to work with Romanian fishermen and find a live female (we heard words that even in 2009 one Romanian fishermen captured one specimen but killed it?) than we can propagate the fish artificially in cooperation with HAKI Szarvas and share the fertilized eggs between Romania and Hungary, to grow young ship sturgeon for restocking in the Danube. These fish would be also of extreme value for aquaculture, since it is the largest European freshwater sturgeon.

With some effort from Romania (NAFA + MA + DDBRA + ME), our dream to save this species could become true. If a Hungarian Fishermen (Gagyi Tibor) was able to catch and save this fish (not kill and sell it to the black market!) than it should be possible to do this also in Romania.

With this goal in mind, Season?s Greetings to you all from the Danube Delta Sturgeon Research Group, Tulcea!

Radu Sucu & Team

Link: Announcement from the web page of the Danube ? Drava National Park