| Green Sturgeon | |
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Family: |
Acipenseridae (Sturgeons) |
Genus and Species: |
Acipenser medirostris |
Description: |
The body of the green sturgeon is long, roughly cylindrical and has five rows of bony plates on its back. The snout is narrow, long, and cone-shaped, and more or less depressed below the level of the forehead. The mouth is toothless, protruding, and sucker-like. Four fleshy projections, or barbels, extend from the underside of the snout. The color is olive green above, whitish below, with olive stripes on the sides. The green sturgeon can be distinguished by its olive green color, the number of bony plates along the side of the body (mid lateral plates; 23 to 30), a very pointed snout, and the barbels are closer to the mouth than to the tip of the snout. |
Range: |
Ensenada, Baja California, to the Bering Sea and Japan. The green sturgeon is commonly found in brackish water (part saltwater, part freshwater). |
Natural History: |
The green sturgeon sifts muds and silts for food and feeds upon small invertebrates and fishes. Since it has no teeth, it must swallow its food whole. The green sturgeon is anadromous, spending its adult life in the ocean but ascending coastal streams in the winter where it remains to spawn the following summer. This species appears to reach sexual maturity in 10 or 15 years and may live to be over 100 years old. |
Fishing Information: |
In California, the green sturgeon is regularly caught in San Francisco and San Pablo Bays, but is not considered to be a good food fish. |
Other Common Names: |
none. |
Largest Recorded: |
7 feet; 350 pounds. |
Habitat: |
Bay Environment |
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