Sturgeon and beluga in particular are considered very valuable commercial fish. However, due to a sharp decline in numbers natural populations in the second half of the 20th century, beluga fish is currently listed in the Red Book as rare view. However, it can be grown in artificial conditions, although with certain difficulties. Beluga caviar is the most expensive caviar in the world.
Beluga is an anadromous fish, that is, it lives in the seas, but rises to rivers to spawn. This species lives in the Caspian, Azov and Black Seas.
The most numerous is the Caspian population of beluga; it can be found everywhere in this sea. The main spawning site of the Caspian beluga is the Volga. Also, a small number of these fish go to spawn in the Ural, Kura and Terek rivers. A very insignificant number spawns in small rivers flowing into the Caspian Sea on the territory of Azerbaijan and Iran. But in general, it can be found in any river that is close enough to those places in the Caspian Sea where beluga fish are found.
In the past, spawning beluga entered rivers quite far - hundreds and even thousands of kilometers. For example, along the Volga it rose to Tver and even to the upper reaches of the Kama. However, due to the construction of numerous hydroelectric power stations on the rivers flowing into the Caspian Sea, modern belugas have to confine themselves only to the lower reaches.
Previously, the Azov beluga population was quite large, but today she was on the verge of extinction. From the Sea of Azov, fish rises to the Don and in very small quantities to the Kuban River. As in the case of the Caspian beluga, natural spawning grounds high upstream were cut off by the construction of a hydroelectric power station.
Finally, in the Black Sea, where the beluga fish lives, its population is also very small and concentrated mainly in the northwest of the sea, although cases of its appearance have been recorded off the coast of southern Crimea, the Caucasus and northern Turkey. For spawning, the local beluga is dressed in three largest rivers regions - Danube, Dnieper and Dniester. Some individuals spawn in the Southern Bug. Before the construction of a hydroelectric power station on the Dnieper, beluga was caught in the Kyiv area and even in Belarus. The situation is similar with the Dniester. But along the Danube it can still rise quite far - right up to the Serbian-Romanian border, where one of the two Danube hydroelectric power stations is located.
Until the 70s. In the last century, beluga was sometimes caught in the Adriatic Sea, where it went to spawn in the Po River. However, in the last few decades, not a single case of beluga being caught in this region has been recorded, which is why the Adriatic beluga is considered extinct.
Beluga - sturgeon fish; considered the largest of all freshwater fish. In historical chronicles there are references of questionable authenticity to the catching of individuals up to 9 meters long and weighing up to 2 tons. However, those sources that do not raise doubts provide no less impressive figures.
For example, a book dedicated to the state Russian fisheries from 1861, a beluga weighing 90 poods (one and a half tons) is mentioned, caught near Astrakhan in 1827. A reference book on freshwater fish in the USSR, published in 1948, mentions a female beluga weighing 75 pounds (more than 1,200 kg), which was caught in the Caspian Sea near the mouth of the Volga in 1922. Finally, everyone can see for themselves a stuffed one-color beluga displayed in National Museum Republic of Tatarstan in the city of Kazan.
The latest case of catching such massive individuals was recorded in 1989, when a beluga weighing 966 kg was caught in the Volga delta. Her stuffed animal can also be seen in one of the museums, but in Astrakhan.
According to experts, the largest beluga fish should be tens of years old. It is possible that some individuals could be 100 years or more old. However, these are all exceptional cases. Average weight fish going to spawn in rivers is 90-120 kg for females and 60-90 kg for males. However, the beluga reaches even this size only at the age of 25-30 years. And immature young animals usually weigh no more than 20-30 kg.
If we leave alone the incredible size of this fish, then in general it has the typical sturgeon appearance. She has a massive, elongated, cylindrical body and a small, pointed nose. The beluga has a blunt, short snout and a large, crescent-shaped mouth. The mouth is bordered by a thick “lip”. The snout has wide, massive antennae.
The head and body are dotted with symmetrical rows of bony scutes (the so-called bugs): 12-13 on the back, 40-45 on the sides and 10-12 on the belly. The dominant color in the beluga's color is gray, which covers the back, sides and top part heads. The underside of the beluga is white.
The first thing mentioned in any description of beluga fish is its method of spawning. The main place of life of this fish is the sea, but it goes to spawning in big rivers, as has already been said earlier.
It is noteworthy that the beluga has so-called spring and winter forms (races). In particular, fish comes to the Volga in two waves: in the first half of autumn - winter, in the first half of spring - spring. However, this river is still dominated by the winter beluga, which spends the winter in river holes and then immediately begins spawning in April-May. In the Ural River, on the contrary, most belugas belong to the spring race; they spawn immediately after entering the river, and then swim back to the sea.
Like any sturgeon, beluga is a predatory fish. The young feed on all kinds of invertebrates and mollusks, catching them near the bottom in river mouths. After entering the open sea, the grown young animals quickly switch to feeding on fish. In the Caspian Sea, the basis of the beluga's diet is carp, roach, sprat, etc. In addition, the beluga does not hesitate to eat its own young and other representatives of the sturgeon family. The Black Sea beluga feeds mainly on anchovy and gobies.
Beluga reaches sexual maturity late: males at 12-14 years, females at 16-18 years. Due to such a long maturation under conditions of intensive industrial fishing, this species was on the verge of extinction.
As already mentioned, beluga spawning occurs in the second half of spring, although a significant part of the fish go to rivers in the fall. Beluga spawns when the spring flood reaches its peak and the temperature river water- 6-7°C. Eggs rush on rapids in deep places (at least 4 meters, usually 10-12 m) with a rocky bottom. One female lays at least 200 thousand eggs, but usually they count in the millions (up to 8 million). The eggs are quite large, about 4 mm in diameter.
Having finished spawning, beluga fish in the Volga and other rivers quickly go to sea. Young larvae also do not stay in the river.
Since ancient times it has been considered commercial fish high value. Active fishing has been going on since at least the 6th century BC. In the 20th century, with the development of industrial fishing methods, beluga fishing reached unprecedented proportions. For example, in the Volga alone in the 70s, 1.2-1.5 thousand tons of this fish were caught annually.
Unjustifiably intensive fishing of red beluga fish, as well as the construction of hydroelectric power stations everywhere in the rivers where it spawns, led to a sharp reduction in its numbers in the second half of the last century. Already in the early 90s, the catch dropped to 200-300 tons per year, and at the end of the decade - below 100 tons. In such conditions Russian authorities in 2000, industrial fishing of beluga sturgeon was banned on its territory, and a decade later other countries of the Caspian region joined the Russian Federation. The situation is even worse in the Black and Azov Seas, where the beluga population has decreased to minuscule sizes.
The actual impossibility of ensuring supplies to consumer market meat and, no less important, beluga caviar created conditions for the development of fish farms specializing in this type of fish. Today they are the only legal suppliers of this type of product to store shelves. However, poaching, unfortunately, also occupies a significant share of this market.
In fish hatcheries, beluga is bred not only and not so much in its natural form, but rather hybridizes with other sturgeon - sterlet, stellate sturgeon and sturgeon. Bester, a fish resulting from crossing beluga and sterlet, has become especially widespread. It is not only grown in pond farms, but even inhabit the Sea of Azov and freshwater reservoirs.
Beluga meat and especially its caviar are considered a true delicacy, from which you can prepare a real culinary masterpiece. This fish is subjected to all types of heat treatment: boiled, fried, baked, steamed and grilled. Beluga is also smoked, cut and canned. Beluga meat can be used to prepare the most Various types dishes including kebabs and salads.
With all this, beluga as a fish is very good for health. It has low calorie content and high content of easily digestible protein. Beluga contains many essential amino acids, which are urgently needed by our body, but are not synthesized in it, and can only be obtained from food. The meat of this fish contains a lot of calcium and phosphorus, which help restore and strengthen bones, as well as improve the condition of nails and hair. The potassium present in beluga improves the functioning of the heart muscle, and iron has a beneficial effect on the composition of the blood.
Beluga meat is rich in vitamin A, which affects visual acuity and skin condition. It also contains other important vitamins: B (important for muscles and nerve tissue), D (prevents the development of rickets and osteoporosis).
Separately, it is worth mentioning beluga caviar. Females lay large black eggs, which are incredibly highly prized by gourmets. Since industrial fishing of beluga is prohibited today, and in aquaculture it takes about 15 years to grow the fish to get caviar from it, the cost of this product reaches exorbitant prices. In Russia, 100 grams of beluga caviar costs about 10-20 thousand rubles, a kilogram - up to 150 thousand rubles. In Europe and other markets, the cost of a kilogram of this caviar ranges from 7-10 thousand dollars. Obviously, it is impossible to purchase such caviar in a regular store.
Beluga, as well as bester (a sturgeon fish hybrid of beluga and sterlet) can feed artificial feed, and therefore suitable for commercial fish farming. However, this technology is quite expensive, especially considering that to obtain caviar it is necessary to grow fish for at least 15 years.
Until the larvae reach a weight of 3 grams, they are grown in special trays. Nutrition is provided with both artificial and natural feed. After the larvae reach the specified weight, they are sent for rearing to ponds with a planting density of about 20 thousand specimens per hectare.
Further, the technology for breeding beluga fish at home provides for the transfer of fingerlings to feeding on minced fish of low-value breeds with various additives. At the same time, the young animals will provide themselves with a significant portion of their nutrition on their own from pond invertebrates. The predator instinct of beluga fingerlings appears at the end of summer, which implies an increase in the proportion of minced meat in its diet.
In beluga fingerlings, weight gain occurs most rapidly in conditions when the temperature and composition of the water are close to optimal values, therefore one of the most important tasks of the fish farmer is maintaining these optimal conditions in the ponds.
In the first year, the average feed conversion of beluga is 2.8 units. At the end of the first season, the fish increases its weight from 3 to 150 g. With an average survival rate of fingerlings of 50%, their fish productivity reaches 20 c/ha.
Fingerlings are planted in wintering ponds (optimal reservoirs with an area of a quarter to half a hectare and a depth of 2-3 m, devoid of bottom silt and vegetation) in an amount of 120 thousand per hectare. Wintering begins in October - November and lasts until March. In winter, beluga is given food in the amount of 2% of the total mass of fish, and when surface ice Feeding is stopped altogether. It is natural for beluga underyearlings to lose 30-40% of their mass during this time. However, the size of the beluga fish does not change.
In the first ten days of April, the fish are sent back to the feeding ponds, where intensive feeding is immediately applied. Two-year-olds are given low-value fresh frozen fish. Young animals grow most actively in the second half of summer, and feed conversion increases during this period to 6 kg of feed per 1 kg of weight gain.
When two-year-olds reach a weight of 0.7 kg (by the end of the second season, about half of them are), they are sent for sale to the food chain. The remaining fish are left for another year and grown to a weight of 1.7-2 kg. In conditions of high survival rate of two-year-old and three-year-old fish (up to 95%), with strict adherence to cultivation technology, fish productivity will be 50-75 c/ha.
Sturgeon fish species live mainly in salty sea water, and go to fresh water bodies to spawn. Representatives of the sterlet family have the smallest sizes, their size on average varies from 35 to 100 cm, and weight from 0.5 to 5 kg. The most major representative sturgeon is the beluga, it can reach a mass of 3 tons and have a length of up to 10 m. Today, sturgeon fishing is the largest fishery. In addition to meat, sturgeon is also valuable for its caviar.
Structure and characteristics
The sturgeon family, this is one of the largest species of fish in the waters, sturgeon has an elongated body, covered with 5 rows of bone spikes: two on the belly, two on the sides and one on the back, between which there are bone plates.
Sturgeon is a fish with a cone-shaped and oblong snout, resembling a shovel. At the bottom of the head there are fleshy mouth lips, next to which there are four antennae. The jaw has a toothless, retractable shape.
The pectoral ray fin has a large thickening in the shape of a “spine”, while the dorsal fin is slightly extended back. The swim bladder is located at the bottom of the spine, connecting to the esophagus. The bony skeleton has a cartilaginous and invertebrate structure in the form of a notochord. The membranes of the four gills are attached to the throat and connect at the throat, and there are also two accessory gills.
General information
As a rule, all varieties of sturgeon move to shallow freshwater bodies during spawning. The sturgeon population is quite prolific, so large and adult sturgeon can produce up to 1 million eggs. Most often, spawning takes place in the spring. It should be noted that some sturgeon, in addition to spawning, move to freshwater river waters for wintering. In most cases, sturgeon live at the bottom of reservoirs, feeding on worms, small fish, insects and mollusks.
Puberty
The sturgeon group, which includes approximately 20 species, is usually long-lived. The period when sturgeon are ready for spawning occurs in different ways and depends on the type and location of the fish. Puberty, like the growth of sturgeon fish, occurs rather slowly. Some sturgeons may reproduce only at the age of 15 years.
- In females, maturation occurs after 10-20 years;
- In males after 7-15 years.
As for weight, it can be noted that sturgeons are the fastest growing river inhabitants. Sturgeons on the Don and Dnieper reach puberty most quickly; sturgeons living in the Volga take much longer.
Calf throwing
Not all female sturgeon spawn annually. Only sterlet can reproduce each year. Sturgeons lay eggs in spring-summer time in fresh water bodies with high currents. The caviar has an adhesive shell, so it can be easily attached to pebbles or flagstones.
Fry
The fry that emerge from the eggs have a yolk sac; this is determined by the endogenous feeding period. The larvae can feed on their own only when the endogenous sac is completely resorbed. At this time, the exogenous period of nutrition begins. After of this period larvae can linger in river bodies, but most often they go to sea.
The first food for sturgeon larvae is zooplankton, most often daphnia. Then the fry begin to feed on various crustaceans:
- mysids;
- chironomids;
- gammarids.
The only exception is the predatory fry of the beluga; they do not have a yolk bladder and even while in a fresh water body begin to feed on their own. The subsequent development of sturgeons, until sexual maturity, takes place in sea waters.
Migratory species of sturgeon fish are divided into winter and spring varieties. The latter, as a rule, enter freshwater rivers in the spring. These sturgeons spawn almost immediately. Winter sturgeons enter the river in the autumn, wait out the winter, and spawn in the spring.
Classification of sturgeon fish
Initially, 2 types of the sturgeon family were classified:
- scaphirinidae;
- sturgeon.
In general, all species consisted of approximately 20 species of fish that lived only in temperate regions: America, Europe and Asia. But over time, the population of many sturgeons died out.
List and photos of popular sturgeon fish
Sturgeons are the most popular in fishing. Today it is known about 20 species of representatives of these fish. The most popular are sturgeon.
Beluga- most ancient look freshwater sturgeon. The life cycle of this fish can reach up to 100 years. Beluga can grow up to 10 meters in length and weigh 3 tons. The body of the beluga is shaped like a torpedo, and is covered in 5 rows of bony protective plates, white below and gray above. At the bottom of the muzzle there is a sickle-shaped mouth and antennae, which provide the fish with a sense of smell. Females are larger than males. Beluga is predatory fish, which, as a rule, feeds on gobies, anchovies, anchovies, roach and herring. Females lay eggs in the spring, once every 3-5 years.
Kaluga. This is a freshwater fish of the beluga family. The size of kaluga can reach up to 5.5 m, and body weight up to one ton. The mouth is semilunar and large. This fish is widespread in the Amur basin, and can also be found in the Sungari, Shilka, Arguni. They distinguish fast-growing, estuary, anadromous kaluga.
Russian sturgeon. It has a spindle-shaped body with a small, blunt snout. The antennae are at the end of the mouth. Typically, the Russian sturgeon is black-gray on top, brown-gray sides and white belly. The fish reaches maximum sizes up to 3.5 m long and can weigh up to 120 kg. The life cycle reaches up to 60 years. In its natural environment, sturgeon can create crosses with beluga, sterlet, stellate sturgeon and thorn. This does not happen very often, but these hybrids do come across. Habitat: Black, Caspian and Azov seas.
shovelnose. Freshwater fish weighing up to 4.5 kg and measuring up to 140 cm. It is distinguished by a flattened and rather long caudal peduncle with bony plates. The tail filament is small or completely absent, the eyes are small, and the swim bladder is large. Habitat: tributaries of the Amu Darya.
Siberian sturgeon. The body of this species of sturgeon is covered with multiple bony plates and fulcra, the mouth is retractable, and there are no teeth. There are 4 antennae in front of the mouth. Places of residence: basins of the Ob, Yenisei, Kolyma and Lena. The sturgeon reaches a maximum length of up to 3.5 m, weighs up to 150 kg, and has life cycle up to 50 years old. Spawning usually occurs in July. The fish's nutritional base is provided by organisms that live at the bottom of the reservoir: amphipods, mollusks, chironomid larvae and polychaete worms.
Thorn. Has an external general form for sturgeon. Of the 5 rows of bone spines, the dorsal one has 12-16 spines, the ventral one has 11-18, and the lateral one has 51-71. There are 22-41 gill rakers on the first gill arch. Places of residence are the basins of the Aral, Caspian, Azov and Black Seas.
Stellate sturgeon. Lives in the Caspian, Black and Azov seas. This species of sturgeon can be spring or winter. The elongated body shape of this fish is characterized by the presence of a poorly developed lower lip, a convex forehead, long nose, smooth and narrow antennae. The top and sides of the sturgeon's body are densely covered with bony scutes. The sides and back are blue-black, and the belly is white. Stellate sturgeon can reach a length of up to 6 m and weigh up to 60 kg.
Sterlet. The smallest fish among the sturgeon family, the sterlet can reach a length of up to 1.20 m and weigh up to 20 kg. The fish has long antennae reaching to the mouth, a narrow elongated nose, a lower lip divided in two and touching scutes on the sides. In addition to the usual plates on the body for sturgeon, the sterlet has closely touching scutes on its back. Depending on where they live, the sterlet can have a different color, but usually its back has a gray-brown tint, and its belly is yellow-white. All fins are gray. At the same time, the sterlet can be sharp-nosed or blunt-nosed. The fish lives only in the north of Siberia.
Delicacy fish
Sturgeon fish can be seen on sale both live and frozen, smoked and chilled. Sturgeon are used to make balyk and various canned foods.
The sale of salted sturgeon is prohibited. This is explained by the likelihood of the presence of a painful anaerobe in meat - botulinus, which causes severe poisoning.
Once upon a time, only those that were sturgeon were classified as red fish. These are varieties such as beluga, sterlet, stellate sturgeon and sturgeon. However, these species were valued not at all for the pinkish tint of their meat, but for their great taste and nutritional properties . Now this generalized name has been assigned to salmon fish. Thus, red salmon is also called salmon, pink salmon and chum salmon.
There is a certain culinary and commercial classification of this fish. The first group includes sturgeon, the place of residence of which is the Caspian and Black Sea. These are varieties such as beluga, sterlet and thorn, sturgeon and stellate sturgeon. The second group is salmonids, such as salmon and trout, pink salmon and chum salmon, and the last group is white salmon species (white fish and coho salmon, nelma and taimen).
The value of red fish is explained by the high content in meat vitamins A, B, E, PP and D, zinc, phosphorus and calcium, fluorine and iodine. But the most important fatty acid for the human body is Omega 3. This acid is needed for normal brain function, maintaining immunity and improving memory. Scientists have proven that those people who constantly include red fish in their menu do not experience depression, and also reduce the risk of hypertension and cancer by 3 times.
Sturgeon fish species
Beluga fishermen deservedly call the king fish for its gigantic size.
Black and Caspian Sea - permanent place Beluga habitats are found in the Adriatic and Mediterranean Seas. This fish is a long-liver, capable of living 100 years and laying eggs several times during its life. Beluga feeds on mollusks, crustaceans, and fish.
This is a predator. Ducklings and baby seals were found in the stomachs of fish.
Having reached sexual maturity, Belugas go to spawn in freshwater rivers. It is believed that the spawning time of beluga occurs in May - June and lasts for a month. Eggs are deposited in deep-sea rivers with fast current and rocky bottom.
Not finding a suitable place, Beluga will not spawn eggs, which will eventually dissolve inside the fish. To occupy a place for spring spawning, female belugas remain overwintering in rivers, hibernating and becoming overgrown with mucus.
One female can carry up to 320 kg of caviar. Pea-sized eggs, dark gray. Beluga caviar is eaten by other fish and carried away by the current. Out of 100,000 eggs, 1 survives.
The juveniles, having spent a month at the spawning site, slide into the sea. Beluga caviar has great nutritional value. This was the reason that fish were caught in huge quantities, which led to a decrease in its numbers.
Currently, the sale of beluga caviar is prohibited by law.
After spawning, hungry belugas are busy searching for food. Old females even swallow inedible objects: driftwood, stones. They differ from young individuals by their large heads and emaciated bodies. Our ancestors did not eat such fish as food.
To catch a beluga, fishermen go out to sea, sailing 3 km from the coast. Using a pole, you need to find a place where there is a lot of shell rock at the bottom, which indicates the beluga’s feeding area. The bait is roach, asp, and herring.
When dragging caught fish into the boat, you need to be careful, because there have been cases when a huge fish overturned the boat and the fisherman ended up in the water.
Beluga is listed in the Red Book and is an object of sport fishing. The caught trophy must be released.
At the beginning of the 20th century, beluga was a common game fish. Tons of this fish were caught in the Danube, Dnieper, and Volga. After the loss of natural spawning grounds, the number of beluga sturgeon decreased significantly. There are no adults, 98% are juveniles.
A hybrid of beluga and sterlet is artificially grown.
There are stories that belugas weighing 1.5 tons and 2 tons were caught, but these facts have not been confirmed. In 1922, the largest beluga in the world was found in the Caspian Sea, weighing 1224 kg.
A stuffed beluga 4.17 m long, caught at the beginning of the 20th century, is on display in the Kazan museum. in the lower reaches of the Volga. When caught, the fish weighed 1000 kg. The Astrakhan museum houses a stuffed beluga caught in the Volga delta and weighing 966 kg.
All this allows us to call Beluga the largest freshwater fish. Many facts are known about the capture of belugas weighing 500, 800 kg. All of them date back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
In our time average weight this fish weighs from 60 to 250 kg. Hydroelectric power plants, sewage treatment plants, dams - all this interferes with the reproduction, growth and survival of fish.
Here Additional Information about Beluga fish from Wikipedia:
Maturation and reproduction
Beluga - long-lived fish reaching the age of 100 years. Unlike Pacific salmon, which die after spawning, beluga, like other sturgeon, can spawn many times in their lives. After spawning, it slides back into the sea.
Caspian beluga males reach sexual maturity at 13-18 years, and females at 16-27 (mostly 22-27) years.
The fertility of beluga, depending on the size of the female, ranges from 500 thousand to a million (in exceptional cases - up to 5 million) eggs.
There is evidence that large (2.5-2.59 m long) Volga females lay an average of 937 thousand eggs, and Kura females of the same size - an average of 686 thousand eggs.
In the past (according to 1952 data), the average fecundity of the running Volga beluga was 715 thousand eggs.
Nutrition
According to the method of feeding, the beluga is a predator that feeds mainly on fish. It begins to prey while still a juvenile in the river. In the sea it feeds mainly on fish (herring, sprat, gobies, etc.), but does not neglect shellfish. Even baby seals were found in the stomachs of the Caspian beluga.
Artificial breeding and hybridization of beluga
In nature, beluga hybridizes with sterlet, stellate sturgeon, sturgeon and sturgeon.
Viable hybrids were obtained on the Volga and Don using artificial insemination - beluga x sterlet (Bester).
These hybrids have been introduced into the Sea of Azov and some reservoirs. Sturgeon hybrids are successfully grown in pond (aquaculture) farms.
Beluga caviar
Female belugas lay black caviar. Beluga eggs are large, they reach 2.5 millimeters in diameter, the weight of the eggs is 1/5-1/4 of the body weight.
Beluga caviar is considered the most valuable among all other sturgeon caviar. It has a dark gray color with a silver tint, a strong odor and a delicate nutty flavor.
Before the revolution, the best prepared variety of granular beluga caviar was called “Warsaw redistribution”, since most of its supplies went in the Russian Empire from Astrakhan to Warsaw, and from there abroad.
By the end of 2005, 1 kg of beluga caviar cost about €620 on the black market in Russia (with an official ban on the sale of this caviar) and up to €7,000 abroad.
I invite everyone to speak out in
Beluga is a fish that is included in the sturgeon family. Due to overfishing of beluga sturgeon, this species of sturgeon is endangered. Perhaps this is the largest fish found in freshwater bodies.
Appearance
Beluga differs from other sturgeon species by its overly large mouth, which is shaped like half a moon. The entire lower part of the beluga's snout is occupied by the fish's mouth. She has antennae that are flattened on the sides. And under the interbranchial space there is a free fold. It is formed from gill membranes that are fused together.
There are bugs on the beluga's back. The first bug, the one near the head, has smallest sizes. Between the bugs on fish skin small granules and platelets can be distinguished. And on the long mustache there are small leaf-shaped appendages. The beluga's body is very thick and has a cylindrical shape. The fish has a gentle nose, which has been compared to a pig's snout. The beluga's body is ash-gray, but the belly is much lighter than the back. Weight Limit Beluga can weigh up to 1,500 kilograms or more. In this case, the body length can be about 6 meters.
Distribution and migrations
It is impossible to say definitely where the beluga is found: it is an anadromous fish. It spawns in freshwater bodies of water - rivers, where it swims from the seas. Large individuals can only find food in the sea. The fish lives in the following seas: Black, Azov and Caspian. In the recent past, the number of beluga was large, but the fish was so valuable that beluga fishing did not stop. Moreover, females large sturgeon They are caught specifically to collect expensive black caviar.
In the waters of the Caspian Sea, fish can be found almost everywhere. Most of fish swim to the Volga for spawning. The rest of the beluga swims to the Terek, Kura and Ural. In the old days, spawning fish rose along the Volga all the way to the city of Tver and to the upper reaches of the Kama River. In the Ural River it spawned everywhere except in the upper reaches. Beluga was also seen near the Iranian coast of the southern Caspian Sea, and it went to the Gorgan River to spawn. From 1961 to 1989, the fish swam to the city of Volgograd. A special fish lift was built for her at the local waterworks. However, he worked extremely unsatisfactorily. Ultimately, in 1989, the USSR considered the beluga fish lift unnecessary and stopped using it. Along the Kura River, fish approach the Kura cascade of hydroelectric power stations, which is located in Azerbaijan. Single individuals were spotted in the Southern Bug. A beluga was also spotted in the Black Sea near the Crimean coast near Yalta. Here, a beluga was spotted at a depth of up to 180 meters, that is, in places where hydrogen sulfide is present. It was also spotted near the Caucasian shores, from where it swam into the Rioni River to spawn. Near the Turkish shores, she went to spawn in the Yesilirmak and Kyzylyrmak rivers. In the Dnieper River between Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhye there were also quite large specimens weighing up to 300 kilograms. Extreme occurrences of beluga were observed near Kiev and above. She swam along the Desna River to Cherry, and along the Sozh River she swam to Gomel. Here in 1870 a fish weighing 295 kilograms was caught. Most belugas swim from the Black Sea to the Danube River to spawn. In the past, fish traveled along the Danube to Serbia, and in the very distant past reached the city of Passau, which is located in Bavaria.
Diet
Big fish need a lot of food. There is not enough food in the rivers for huge sturgeons, so adult individuals go to the sea to feed. Beluga prefers to stay in the water column at different depths, which depends on the distribution area of the organisms that go to food sturgeon fish. In the Black Sea, individuals penetrate 160-180 meters deep, and in the Caspian Sea they are rarely found deeper than 100-140 meters. The youngest individuals of large sturgeons use invertebrates that live on the seabed. But as soon as the body length of beluga cubs reaches 9-10 centimeters, they begin to hunt small fish. At first, beluga cubs prefer to live in shallow waters near river mouths, which are well warmed up by the sun. As the fish grows, they move deeper into the sea.
The sizes of beluga sturgeons of the same age can differ significantly. It depends on the diet. The largest are the individuals that switched to feeding on small fish earlier than anyone else. The larger the beluga, the larger its prey becomes: anchovy, herring, gobies and fish belonging to the carp family. Adult fish can hunt both in the water column and on the seabed.
Reproduction
Beluga lives for a very long time, almost 100 years. However, few individuals survive to this age, as they often become prey for fishermen. This fish, like other large and long-lived animals, is characterized by later puberty. Males become sexually mature at the age of 12 to 14 years, and females from 16 to 18 years. Individuals of the Azov beluga mature the fastest. Those fish that have reached sexual maturity swim from the sea to rivers, where they subsequently reproduce. Migration against the flow of a river is called catadromous (translated from Greek as “running up”), and migration along the flow of water is usually called anadromous (“running down”). Once upon a time, a beluga traveled like this for a very long time. In the 19th century, it began its journey from the Caspian Sea, rising high along the Volga River and sailing to its tributaries. Fishermen caught this fish near Tver, in the Kama, Oka and Vyatka rivers. Depending on what time of year the beluga entered the river, it is customary to distinguish between the autumn and spring races of this fish. The spring race enters the river at the end of January until mid-May, and the autumn race begins its movement in August and until the beginning of December. The beluga of the spring run spawns, as a rule, in early June of the same year it entered the river, and the fish of the autumn run winters in deep river holes. Belugas breed in the autumn season next spring. The same individual reproduces at intervals of several years. For spawning, this fish chooses deep places with rocky ridges and pebble deposits, where the river flow is fast enough. Males swim to the spawning grounds a little earlier than females. Beluga eggs are fertilized in the same way as the main mass. bony fish, externally During the spawning period, you can observe fish jumping out of the water. Most likely, the fish does this in order to facilitate the release of eggs. The number of eggs laid by the female varies from 200,000 to 8,000,000 oval eggs, which are 3.3-3.8 mm in diameter and dark gray in color. Beluga eggs are very sticky, which helps them stick well to the stones. If the water temperature is from 12.6 to 13.8 degrees Celsius, then incubation period is 8 days. The fry hatched from eggs almost instantly switch to higher nutrition. The hatched beluga fry immediately begin to roll into the sea.
The biggest fish
Beluga is the most big fish, which can be caught in fresh water. Beluga fishing has been going on for a long time. No wonder they say that “sturgeon - king fish" The largest beluga caught is presented in the National Museum of the Tatarstan Republic. The length of the fish was 4 meters and 17 centimeters, and the weight was equal to 1 ton.
In fact, the sturgeon from Tatarstan is not the largest beluga that was caught from the river. There are cases when fishermen were lucky enough to catch individuals about 9 meters in length. The mass of freshwater monsters was approximately 2 tons. Currently, giant sturgeon cannot be found, since the pace of beluga fishing does not allow the fish to gain a mass of more than 200 kilograms. In history, there are known cases of catching the following record specimens:
- In the lower reaches of the Volga River in 1827, a beluga weighing 1,500 kilograms was caught;
- In 1992, on May 11, a female beluga was caught in the Caspian Sea near the Volga mouth, which weighed 1224 kilograms. The weight of its caviar was 146 kilograms and 500 grams, the beluga's head weighed 288 kilograms, and its body 667 kilograms;
- In the Caspian Sea near Biryuchya Spit, two years later a beluga was caught, approximately the same weight as the previous one. But in her body there were 246 kilograms of caviar, which amounted to almost 8 million eggs;
- Two years later, a beluga sturgeon, 75 years old, was caught near the mouth of the Urals. Her weight was more than 1000 kilograms. The body length was 4 meters and 24 centimeters. The mass of the caviar was 190 kilograms.
Beluga - the giant of the 20th century
In the autumn of 1891, the wind stole water from the Taganrog Bay, which belonged to Sea of Azov. A peasant walked past the shore that was freed from water and discovered that an Azov beluga was lying in a puddle. Its weight was 327 kilograms, which is equivalent to 20 pounds. The weight of beluga caviar was 49 kilograms, or 3 pounds. This Azov beluga does not have such a record weight for that time, but for modern fishermen an individual of this weight would be a dream fish.
Beluga is the most close-up view among freshwater fish. Even in historical documents you can find mention of it. Previously, in times ancient Rus', only the king and his close princes could eat it. Only for them it was brought specially from the Caspian Sea. And in those days they were already talking about its incredibly large size. There is even evidence. But that was a long time ago. Those days have passed, and nowadays such huge fish are no longer found.
Beluga fish
Beluga is amazing fish long-lived Many claim that she can live more than a hundred years. And in such a long time she reaches gigantic size. This species is the largest species on the planet. Oddly enough, but the beluga throws the game only a few times throughout its entire life. long life. In this case, the mass of caviar reaches up to half a ton.
In order to lay eggs, belugas swim far into rivers that flow into the sea, and if they do not make sure that this place is safe, then they simply do not spawn, but swim back. And the caviar dissolves on its own over time. Young fish begin to lay eggs from mid-spring until autumn. She lays her eggs in the deepest places with a rocky bottom and strong currents. The caviar itself is very large in size, like Walnut. And the number of such eggs reaches several million.
Gallery: beluga fish (25 photos)
How does she look
This view applies to the sturgeon family. Beluga has five rows of bony scutes that are located along the body, and its head is long and elongated. The lower part of the head has four whiskers. The nose is pointed and slightly translucent. This is due to the fact that it does not have bone brushes. Her mouth is very wide, and upper lip thick and hanging over him. The body is quite thick and looks like a cylinder. She doesn't have a spine, but instead has cartilage. It grows up to four meters, and its weight can reach a ton.
Its meat is quite tough, but tasty. Many dishes and snacks are prepared from it. And caviar is the most expensive in the world. This type of fish is a predator, so it feeds on fish, shellfish, and crustaceans. But there were cases when fishermen, when ripping open her belly, even found ducks.
At sea they live alone. Puberty occurs, on average, after fifteen years, and at fifty it already fades away.
The individual overwinters in river pits so that with the onset of spring they can rise to the surface and lay eggs. Young fish, which are not yet able to lay eggs, also go into rivers or remain in the sea, but at shallow depths. Adults do not go anywhere and spend the winter in the sea at great depths. When cold weather sets in, the beluga's body is covered with a large layer of mucus, after which it hibernates until spring. But before that, she carefully stocks up on food for the entire winter period.
In nature, beluga can form hybrids, such as:
- Bester - crossing with sterlet;
- With fish spike;
- Sturgeon;
- Sevruga.
Where does the beluga live?
This type of fish can be found in the Black, Azov, Caspian, Azov, Mediterranean and Adriatic seas.
When the time comes for spawning, there is a chance of meeting it in rivers such as Terek, Don, Kama and Volga. Those females that do not have time to lay eggs remain in these rivers for the winter.
The largest beluga
The largest representative of this species was caught back in 1922 in Russia in the Caspian Sea. Her weight was 1224 kilograms, besides, it came with caviar. And it is still a leader in the world.
When you look at the photograph confirming this fact, you simply cannot believe that this is true. This fish looks more like a monster.
There are several more examples confirming the enormous size of this fish. Anyone can see this giant fish in the Kazan Museum. She was stuffed. When she was caught, her weight reached a whole ton, and her size was 4.17 meters.
Another copy can be seen in the Astrakhan Museum. This fish was caught in the Volga and reached its maximum weight - a ton, or more precisely, 966 kilograms. The length of this beluga was slightly less than six meters. According to sources, poachers caught this fish, gutted the eggs from it, and threw away the fish itself. Fearing that they might be imprisoned, they reported this discovery to the museum staff. So this fish turned into a giant stuffed animal.
Reasons for confusion
You can often find people who confuse beluga with other types of fish. Why? And it’s all very simple: the word “beluga” used to refer to whales. Everyone knows that whales are undoubtedly larger than beluga. As a result, incorrect facts appeared that a beluga weighing about two tons had been caught. Perhaps it was just a whale, also called a beluga. But beluga whales are distinguished not only by their enormous mass, but also by the fact that they can sing. Such confusion also occurs abroad. There, beluga is designated by a word such as sturgeon. In this regard, when catching large fish of the sturgeon family, it is classified as beluga.
The Azov beluga is different from the rest wide and short head, wide snout and forehead, as well as tall body. Beluga also grows much faster in the Sea of Azov than in other basins. The main place where this fish lays eggs is the Don River. Migration occurs from March to December. Juveniles feed on fry. Larger individuals feed on gobies and crustaceans. There is even evidence that they can even eat jellyfish and ctenophores. As a result of the reduction in the number of gobies, which they mainly feed on, there was a decrease in the number of this fish.
How to catch this type of fish
Today this fish fishing is strictly prohibited. But if you are engaged in sport fishing, you can try to catch it. What is needed for that? First of all, you need to purchase special gear that will not harm the fish. If you do manage to catch this fish, you will not be able to eat it, because according to the rules of sport fishing, it must be measured, weighed, photographed, and then released back into the water.
For success to be obvious, it must be caught in rivers such as the Volga or Don. For bait, it is better to take small fish or raw meat. But be careful - this fish is very strong, it can easily capsize the boat. Currently, the largest individual has been caught, weighing 300 kilograms.
Reasons for the disappearance of the beluga
All this led to a reduction in the number of this species, it began to lay eggs rarely and became small in size.
Currently, this type of fish is listed in the Red Book. Special services are fighting poachers. In many cities and countries around the world, it is bred artificially to maintain the numbers of endangered fish. Thanks to all this, there is hope that these fish will become numerous and large again. And if not us, then our children or grandchildren will be able to see the giants with their own eyes.
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