Biology and Conservation of the European Sturgeon Acipenser Sturio L

Biology and Conservation of the European Sturgeon Acipenser sturio L. 1758 . Patrick Williot l Eric Rochard l Nathalie Desse-Berset l Frank Kirschbaum l Jo¨rn Gessner Editors Biology and Conservation of the European Sturgeon Acipenser sturio L. 1758 The Reunion of the European and Atlantic Sturgeons Editors Dr. Patrick Williot Dr. Eric Rochard Sturgeon Consultant Cemagref Rue du Pas de Madame 4 Estuarine Ecosystems and Diadromous 33980 Audenge Fish Research Unit France Avenue de Verdun 50 [email protected] 33612 Cestas cedex France Dr. Nathalie Desse-Berset [email protected] Universite´ de Nice-Sophia Antipolis CNRS-CEPAM-UMR 6130, SJA3 Prof. Frank Kirschbaum Avenue des Diables Bleus 24 Humboldt-Universita¨t Berlin 06357 Nice cedex 4 Abt. Biologie und O¨ kologie der France Fische [email protected] Philippstr. 13 [email protected] 10115 Berlin Haus 16 Dr. Jo¨rn Gessner Germany Leibniz-Institut fu¨r [email protected] Gewa¨ssero¨kologie und Binnenfischerei Mu¨ggelseedamm 310 12587 Berlin Germany [email protected] ISBN 978-3-642-20610-8 e-ISBN 978-3-642-20611-5 DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-20611-5 Springer Heidelberg Dordrecht London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2011935343 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to prosecution under the German Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Dedication to Dr. Etienne Magnin Dr. E´ tienne Magnin (1922À1990) was one of the few contemporary researchers to take an interest in European sturgeon before it became an endangered species. His doctoral thesis and subsequent work on the biology of the species – and, more specifically, of the population of the Gironde basin – on its taxonomic position relative to Atlantic sturgeon and on its status, which was already considered a cause for concern in the 1950s, laid much of the scientific groundwork for a body of knowledge that others continue to build on and that will, we hope, some day make possible the survival of this magnificent fish. Paradoxically, Dr. Magnin, though he came late to the field of biology, was a pioneer, and not only with respect to his research in France on European sturgeon. After settling in Canada, where he was first a consultant (1962), then a professor in the Department of Biology at the Universite´ de Montreál (1964À1987), he was also a pioneer in the development of knowledge about the aquatic ecosystems of the St. Lawrence River and the James Bay region during the early stages of construc- tion of the large-scale hydroelectric projects in this vast, little-known northern territory. His areas of interest were many. Both an ichthyologist and a limnologist, Dr. Magnin authored or co-authored, with the graduate students and researchers who worked in his laboratory and that of the Socie´te´ d’eńergie de la Baie James where he was scientific director for more than 7 years, 81 scientific papers: 48 on fish (including 16 on European and North American Acipenseridae), 17 on benthic organisms, six on zooplankton, five on phytoplankton and five on various other subjects (such as amphibians). His book on the freshwater ecology of the James Bay region (1977) still remains a major reference work. Dr. Magnin was also an outstanding teacher. Those, like us, who had the opport- unity of taking his zoology and comparative anatomy courses were able to appreci- ate his rigorous approach, his clarity of thought, his attention to detail, his respect for students and his sense of humour. He was also a mentor, whose knowledge, commitment, enthusiasm and support enabled him to train three PhD students and 28 master’s students in a span of 20 years. Many of these went on to their own research careers in academe and public service, contributing, in turn, to improving v vi Dedication to Dr. Etienne Magnin our understanding and protection of freshwater ecosystems, preparing a new gen- eration of biologists and developing a profession that plays an increasingly integrated role in the decision-making processes of today’s society. Pierre Dumont Ministe`re des Ressources naturelles et de la Faune du Que´bec Peter Harper Universite´ de Montreál Dedication to Dr. Juraj Holcˇik RNDr. Juraj Holcˇ´ık, CSc. – eminent Slovak zoologist was born on October 18, 1934 in Trnava in Western Slovakia. He completed his B.Sc. (1958) and PhD (1966) studies at Charles University in Prague. Before being appointed Director of the newly established Institute of Zoology and Ecosozology (in 1995 re-named Institute of Zoology), Slovak Academy of Sciences in 1990, Dr. Holcˇ´ık was research officer and after 1972 the Senior Research Officer of the Institute of Fishery Research and Hydrobiology in Brati- slava. He also worked at the Regional Museum at Trnava and the Slovak National Museum in Bratislava as the Curator of Zoology and Curator of Lower Vertebrates respectively. The scope of his scientific activity was very diverse, and included taxonomy, zoogeography, ecology, population dynamics, limnology, and ecosozology, as well as production, introduction, acclimatization and conservation of fish gene pool (genofond). However, ichthyology was the main focus of his work. He was an internationally renowned expert on Palearctic Petromyzontidae, Salmonidae, and Cyprinidae (especially the subfamilies Acheilognathinae and Percidae). He described six new fish species, three subspecies and two new hybrid forms of fish fauna in Slovakia, Romania, Mongolia, the Balkans and Iran. Of these, Gymnoce- phalus baloni (Holcˇ´ık and Hensel 1974) is considered to be one of the last new vertebrate taxa to be described on Slovak territory. He contributed to the development of a methodology for studying ecological fish production in open waters. He contributed significantly to the fact that the Slovak–Hungarian section of the Danube river is one of the best studied sections not only of the Danube but also of large rivers overall. He also contributed to our understanding of the importance of floodplains and knowledge of the causal relationships between the density, ecological production and activity of fish populations on one hand, and main abiotic environmental factors on the other hand. Concerning the population dynamics of fish in man-made water reservoirs, he amended principles of stepwise evolution of ichthyofauna. He was an uncompromising advocate of the conservation of the vii viii Dedication to Dr. Juraj Holcˇik Danube inland delta below Bratislava which he supported even as a Member of Parliament of the Czecho–Slovak Federative Republic. During his career he published, either alone or with co-authors, 170 original articles, over 200 popular science articles, and 25 books or book chapters. Some of them were published in several languages and multiple editions. For example, the book Holcˇ´ık J, Mihlik J and Maly´ J: Freshwater Fishes was published in four English editions as well as in seven additional editions in five different languages. Dr. Holcˇ´ık is coauthor of an ongoing book series entitled The Freshwater Fishes of Europe, for which he created the structure of individual book chapters and was the editor of the first part of the series (Vol. 1/I: Petromyzontes, 1986, Vol. 1/II: General introduction to Fishes, Acipenseriformes, 1989, AULA Verlag Wiesbaden) for which he also authored several chapters. It is noteworthy that in 1998 he published the first and still the only textbook of ichthyology in the former Czechoslovakia (Ichtyolo´gia, Vydavatelˇstvo Prı´roda, Bratislava). This significant scientific output is a demonstration of his creativity, extraordinary industriousness, and determination. In the 1960s J. Holcˇ´ık led a Czechoslovak limnological expedition to Cuba. In addition, he worked as a visiting professor at the University of Waterloo (Canada, 1986–1987; 1992), and as a technical advisor for FAO in Iran (1989–1991) and Ghana (1995–1996). He also supervised and graduated several promising scientists. Dr. Holcˇ´ık’s publications and his activity in international ichthyological organizations (which was negatively influenced by political discrimination from the 1950s to the 1980s) had a significant impact on his scientific reputation. He was frequently asked to chair congresses and symposia, became a member of editorial boards of five international scientific journals (Biologia, Folia Zoologica, Bios, Environmental Biology of Fishes, and Voprosy ichtiologii), and was an active board member in many, primarily ichthyological organizations. For his lifetime achieve- ments he was awarded the World Wide Fund for Nature Award for Conservation Merit in 1996 and the G.J. Mendel honour medal of the Czech Academy of Sciences in 1998. He passed away on May 16, 2010. Kristina Holcˇik Preface General Introduction, Context, Origin and Setting Up of the Project The European sturgeon, Acipenser sturio L. 1758, used to be one of the most widespread sturgeon species (Magnin 1959). However, like most Eurasian sturgeon species, its status has now become critical (Williot et al. 2002), it has been extir- pated from the great majority of its natural biotopes, and survives only in the French Atlantic coast façade, the Garonne basin, with a population on the verge of extinction (Rochard et al.

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