Chebanov, M., Rosenthal, H., Gessner, J., van Anrooy, R., Doukakis, P., Pourkazemi, M. and Williot, P. 2011.
Sturgeon hatchery practices and management for release - Guidelines.
FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Paper 558. Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, Rome, Italy. 110 p. ISBN 978-92-5-107044-4 (English). Available in English and Russian.


Sturgeon hatcheries play an important role in the rehabilitation of the sturgeon stocks in the Caspian Sea and elsewhere. Since the demise of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1991, a large part of the experience, expertise and specific knowledge on sturgeon hatchery practices and management in the Caspian Sea Basin has disappeared, while research and knowledge on sturgeon and hatchery practices in other regions have advanced rapidly in the last few decades.
Sturgeon restocking practices that resulted in limited success have caused a critical reassessment of the entire culture process, the strategies applied for conservation culture, the design of rehabilitation programmes, the design of hatcheries and the mode of their operation. This technical paper aims to increase global awareness and to guide and build capacity about the best practices currently available by providing senior and mid-level sturgeon hatchery staff with a practical tool for modern sturgeon hatchery practices and management.
This technical paper provides specific technical guidelines, justifications for these technical guidelines and suggestions to support their implementation. The guidance provided is based on the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (1995) and contributes to the implementation of the Ramsar Declaration on Global Sturgeon Conservation (2006). As such, this book is part of the capacity-building and awareness raising efforts of the partners involved in their preparation in order to increase the success of sturgeon hatchery practices for release purposes.
This technical paper has been prepared on the basis of comments, inputs and suggestions received on the various drafts of technical guidelines at workshops held in Atyrau, Kazakhstan, 15-18 April 2009 and Wuhan, China, 25 October 2009. Selected sturgeon hatchery and sturgeon biology experts and other stakeholders from academia, national and international research institutions, governmental organizations and international non-governmental organizations were invited to these workshops.

Full pdf document on the FAO web site (english)