Beluga fish with big secrets where to buy beluga or caviar. The largest beluga: confirmed facts

The sturgeon family is a valuable commercial species; their meat and caviar are in demand and have excellent taste.

Belongs to the most ancient forms, to the shovel-nosed family, lived back in the Cretaceous era 75 million years ago, before the appearance of bony waterfowl. Nowadays, their number has decreased due to negative human activities.

Origin

River flows, hydraulic construction, land reclamation, illegal fishing - all this leads to a rapid decline in the sturgeon population. Efforts are being made to increase their number, bred under artificial conditions in factories, but so far to no avail. The fish is listed in the International and Russian Red Book.

Description of sturgeon

The most ancient sign of sturgeon- this is a notochord, cartilage that makes up the backbone of the skeleton; even adult fish lack vertebral bodies. Sturgeons have a cartilaginous base internal skeleton and skull, the body resembles a long spindle and has 5 lines of bone spines and bugs. The head is covered with bony scutes, the muzzle is long in the shape of a cone or spade. A pair on the belly and sides, one on the back. Between them there are plates and bone grains. The dorsal fin grows closer to the tail; there is a spine on the pectoral ray fin, which is used to determine the age of the individual.

The mouth is fleshy, protruding, there are no teeth. There are four antennae on the underside of the snout. swim bladder located at the bottom of the spine and connects to the esophagus. This species, like sharks, has a squirter. This is a special hole leading from the gill cavity to the upper edge of its cover. There are four main gills, their membranes are attached to the throat and connect at the throat. There are no gill rays. There are two accessory gills.

The anus is located at the base of the ventral fin. The heart contains the conus arteriosus and the intestine has a spiral valve. The rhombic scales contain an enamel-like substance called ganoid. Because of this distinctive characteristic, sturgeons are called cartilaginous ganoids.

Lifestyle

Sturgeon squad lives in water basins of Europe, North Asia and America. The squad is divided into three types:

• checkpoints
• semi-through
• freshwater

Individuals of an anadromous species are spring and winter ones, migrate from the salty sea to the river to spawn. Spawning in spring fish occurs in the spring-summer period and only at a temperature of 15-20 degrees. There are winter species that come to a freshwater river or lake in the fall for wintering. All types are united long duration life, fertility, similar appearance, diet and lifestyle.

Sturgeon fish are very large aquatic inhabitants, for example, the beluga is 4 meters long and weighs 500 kg. The sturgeon family is distinguished by its long life: beluga lives 100 years, sturgeon 50, stellate sturgeon 30, sterlet 20 years. Puberty occurs late, in females at 10-15 years, in males at 10-12 years. Puberty in sterlet and shovelnose it is achieved much earlier. One individual reproduces only a few times during its life and does not go to spawn every year. Sturgeons are very prolific. The female can lay several million eggs. When sturgeon go to spawn, they practically do not feed. Sturgeon fish usually live and hunt near the bottom, feeding on small fish, worms, mollusks, and insects.

Classification

In the old classification there were only two genera: sturgeon and scaphirynchus, with 25 species of fish living in temperate zone northern hemisphere.

Modern system divides sturgeons into 4 genera and 4 more fossils in 5 subfamilies.

The most common types of sturgeon include: sturgeon, beluga, kaluga, shovelnose, sterlet, stellate sturgeon, thorn. There are various hybrids obtained by crossing the main species in spawning areas.

Spawning or spawning

The female sturgeon does not spawn every year, but only every 2-3 years; only sterlet breeds annually. Puberty in sturgeon occurs late, only when they reach a significant size . Sturgeons spawn in the spring or in summer to freshwater rivers and lakes, where there is good current and a bottom strewn with pebbles. After spawning, the fish return back to the sea to feed and grow for new spawning.

Fry

The fry emerge from the eggs. The larvae feed from the gall bladder, an endogenous sac. When the sac is completely absorbed, then the endogenous feeding period ends. Then the exogenous feeding period begins, when the food is daphnia. Then the fry begin to feed on different crustaceans. They just don't have a gallbladder predatory fry Belugas, they immediately begin to hunt.

Then the fry begin to move towards the sea Once in the sea, they continue to grow until they reach puberty.

The most popular types of sturgeon

Sturgeon. There are 17 species of sturgeon. Many species are on the verge of extinction. Sturgeon is a commercial fish with an average weight of 10-20 kg. Archaeologists found a fish 3 meters long and weighing 2 quintals. In the Black Sea, individuals up to 100 kg are currently found. Sturgeon is a bottom-dwelling fish that lives at the bottom of up to 100 m of lakes, rivers and seas.

Beluga. The oldest freshwater sturgeon. The beluga lives about 100 years. Weighs 3 tons and reaches 10 meters in length. The body is shaped like a torpedo, covered with 5 rows of protective bone plates, the belly is white in color, and the back is gray. Beluga is a predator, its main diet is other small fish such as anchovy, roach, anchovy, gobies, and herring. Females are larger than males and spawn once every 3-5 years.

Kaluga. ​ This type belongs to the beluga family. They can grow up to 1 ton and reach a length of 5.5 meters. Lives in the Amur basin . It can be fast-growing, estuary or migratory.

shovelnose. Fish reaching a length of up to 140 cm and weighing up to 4.5 kg. It has a tail that is different from other sturgeons, flattened with a long caudal peduncle covered with bony plates. The tail filament is absent or very small, small eyes, large swim bladder. Lives in the tributaries of the Amu Darya.

Thorn. It has the appearance of all sturgeons. It has 12-16 bugs on its back, 11-18 on its belly, and 51-71 on its sides. There are 22-41 gill rakers on the gill arch. Lives in the Aral, Caspian, Azov and Black Seas.

Stellate sturgeon. Lives in the Caspian, Azov and Black Seas. This is both a spring and winter species of sturgeon. The elongated shape of the body, covered with bony scutes, long nose, small mustache, underdeveloped lower lip, bulging forehead. The belly is white, and the back and sides are blue-black. It grows up to 6 meters in length and weighs 60 kg.

Sterlet. The smallest fish from the sturgeon family, 120 cm long, weighs 20 kg. The fish has a narrow long nose, the lower lip is divided in half, it is touched by long antennae, and there are touching scutes on the sides of the lip. In addition to the usual plates for the sturgeon family, the sterlet has closely adjacent scutes on its back. Sterlet maybe different colors, but usually it is gray-brown on the back with a yellow-white belly. Can be sharp-nosed or blunt-nosed. Lives only in Siberia.

Nutrition

Sturgeon are bottom fish, therefore they feed on invertebrates living on the bottom. These are mainly worms, crustaceans, larvae and mollusks. Based on their feeding type, sturgeons are benthophages. The exceptions are beluga and kaluga - they are predators. Sturgeon grow quickly. This is due to their ability to make the most efficient use of food resources. In one pond can get along perfectly different types sturgeons have differences in the type of food and therefore the food resources of the reservoir are used in full.

Commercial significance

Sturgeon are called red fish. The meat is especially valued and black caviar is even more valuable. In addition, they use the swim bladder and make glue from it, and eat the spinal string from the sturgeon. Currently, sturgeon are caught only in the rivers of the Caspian Sea and in Iran. Fishing quotas are set, which depend on the number of fry released into the Caspian Sea. Due to the reduction of quotas, sturgeon breeding in fish factories is increasing.

Culinary and commercial value of red fish

Sturgeon are sold both live and frozen, chilled and smoked. Balyk and various canned foods are made from fish . Salted fish It is prohibited to sell because botulinus infection and severe poisoning are possible. Previously, only those fish that were sturgeon were called red. These are stellate sturgeon, sturgeon, sterlet, and beluga. Fish was valued not only for pink meat, but also for its excellent taste and nutritional value. Now salmon also began to bear this name. Salmon, chum salmon and pink salmon are now also red fish.

Red fish meat and caviar

Eating meat and caviar affects the strengthening of bone tissue, its growth, and also contributes to skin rejuvenation.

The sturgeon family is a valuable commercial fish, the meat and caviar of which is of great value and usefulness for humanity.

This is a fish of the sturgeon family, included in the Red Book as an endangered species. Lives in the Black, Caspian, Adriatic and Mediterranean seas. Due to the gigantic size of individual individuals, the beluga is the largest freshwater fish. Which is probably not surprising, since this species is unusually ancient. The sturgeon dates back more than 200 million years, when very large fish and animals reigned on Earth. Just look at the Danube Beluga - a relative of dinosaurs. So, What is the weight of the largest beluga on Earth?

In 1827, a beluga weighing one and a half tons, that is, 1,500 kilograms, was caught in the lower reaches of the Volga. Just imagine, this weight is comparable to the weight of some whales. Thus, a narwhal whale weighs about 940 kilograms, and a killer whale weighs 3,600 kilograms. That is, this fish weighed as much as half an orca and more than a narwhal!

On average, a standard beluga weighs about 19 kilograms(fish weight typical for the Northern Caspian). In the past average weight beluga on the Volga was about 70-80 kg, in the Danube habitat of the Black Sea region - 50-60 kg, in the Sea of ​​Azov the fish weighed 60-80 kg. But in the Don delta, males weighed 75-90 kg, and females - as much as 166 kilograms. Even the average weight already speaks of the enormous size and heaviness of this fish.

However, the average weight of most individuals in the population does not even come close to the record weight of the largest beluga. On May 11, 1922, at the mouth of the Volga, in the Caspian Sea, a beluga weighing 1224 kilograms, that is, 1.2 tons, was caught! At the same time, there were 667 kilograms on the body, 288 kilograms on the head and 146.5 kilograms on the calf.

The weight of the female during the spawning period increases many times. After all, beluga lays millions of eggs! In 1924, a female of the same weight of 1.2 tons was caught on the Biryucha Spit in the Caspian Sea. At the same time, 246 kilograms of weight were in the caviar. Total quantity eggs amounted to 7.7 million!

One female can carry up to 320 kilograms of caviar. Beluga carries them in itself until spring spawning. While waiting for him, the female spends the winter in the rivers, hibernating and becoming overgrown with mucus, like a stone. If it happens that the female does not find a suitable place for spawning, she will not spawn, and the eggs will eventually dissolve inside her.

It is not by chance that a huge amount of caviar is placed in the beluga by nature. Its task is to ensure the survival of the species. After all, beluga caviar is carried away by the current and eaten by other fish. Out of a hundred thousand eggs, only one will survive.

The records of giant belugas do not end with the above examples. On May 3, 1926, a 75-year-old female weighing more than one ton was caught at the mouth of the Urals. She carried 190 kg of caviar.

The Beluga, a stuffed animal of which is kept in the National Museum of Tatarstan, weighs about one ton. This fish was caught at the beginning of the 20th century in the lower reaches of the Volga. In the southern part of the Caspian Sea in 1836, a beluga weighing 960 kg was caught.

Over time, the record weight of the largest belugas decreased and no longer exceeded a ton. In 1970, an 800-kilogram beluga was caught on the Volga, which contained 112 kg of caviar. There, in 1989, a fish weighing 966 kg was caught. Now it is kept in the Astrakhan Museum.

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 most big fish, which is 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, is the smallest. Small granules and plates can be distinguished between the bugs on fish skin. 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. Find food large individuals can only at 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. In addition, female large sturgeons are caught specifically to collect expensive black caviar.

In the waters of the Caspian Sea, fish can be found almost everywhere. Most of the 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 sturgeon use invertebrates that live on the seabed as food. But as soon as the body length of beluga whales 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 individuals are the ones 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 late 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. Beluga spring migration spawns, as a rule, in early June of the same year as it entered the river, and the fish autumn progress winters in river deep 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 externally in the same way as in the bulk of bony fish. 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. 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, sturgeon from Tatarstan is not the most big beluga which 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 belongs to the Sea of ​​Azov. A peasant walked past the shore that had become free of 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 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, the beluga will not spawn eggs, which will eventually dissolve inside the fish. To occupy a place for spring spawning, female belugas remain in the rivers for the winter, hibernating and becoming overgrown with mucus. One female can carry up to 320 kg of caviar.

The eggs are pea-sized and dark gray in color. 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 their numbers.

The sale of beluga caviar is currently prohibited by law.. After spawning, hungry belugas are busy searching for food. Old females even swallow inedible objects: driftwood, stones. They are different from juveniles big head and an exhausted body. Our ancestors did not eat such fish as food.

To catch a beluga, fishermen go out to sea, sailing 3 km from the shore. 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 common commercial 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.

No adults found, 98% are juveniles. A hybrid of beluga and sterlet, bester, 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, in the Caspian Sea there was the largest beluga in the world, weighing 1224 kg. A stuffed beluga 4.17 m long, caught in the early 20th century in the lower reaches of the Volga, is on display in the Kazan museum. 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 the beluga the largest freshwater fish. There are many facts known about the capture of belugas weighing 500, 800 kg. All of them date back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Nowadays, the average weight of this fish is from 60 to 250 kg.

Hydroelectric power plants, sewage treatment plants, dams - all of these interfere with the reproduction, growth and survival of fish.

We present to you a video of a large beluga caught in Atyrau.

Beluga - largest fish the sturgeon family, living in the Caspian, Black and Seas of Azov and entering nearby rivers to spawn. At favorable conditions it can live more than 100 years and, unlike its Pacific relatives, does not die after spawning. Accordingly, it has been growing all this time, and I think everyone will be interested to know what size the largest beluga in the world reached.

The most large beluga- this is definitely a female, since males are almost twice as small. The fish reaches sexual maturity at the age of 16, but more often after 20. Black caviar makes up about 20% of the entire body and contains from 500 thousand eggs (5-7 million in the largest ones). And spawning does not occur simultaneously, but over the course of 3 spring months. That is why beluga is always desirable for caviar hunters - for which it paid.

Now this fish is listed in the Red Book because of its value - black caviar, the main delicacy. IN official sale you won’t find it, but on the black market in Russia a kilogram of caviar costs from $600, and abroad - from $7,000.

Even under the most favorable conditions, 90% of eggs do not grow into adults. Plus, in the last century, people have “taken care” that in some rivers the beluga has disappeared completely (for example, before the construction of dams on the Dnieper, it rose to Zaporozhye and some specimens were caught even near Kiev) and now the situation everywhere is more than deplorable. But the beluga has always been an indicator of the health of the ecosystem.

Poachers and hydroelectric dams prevent the fish from growing and the largest fish caught in the last 50 years was a fish weighing 800 kg in 1970 and 960 kg in 1989. The last scarecrow, 4.2 m long and about 70 years old, is now kept in the Astrakhan Museum. The fish was caught by poachers, the eggs were gutted, and an anonymous call was made to report the trophy, which required a truck to transport. Today, the largest beluga in the world and you can find a video about it on YouTube, where they show a specimen weighing about 500 kg.

The book “Research on Fisheries in Russia” reports that the largest beluga caught in the Volga was about 9 meters long and weighed 90 pounds (1440 kg). This individual claims to be the largest freshwater fish on Earth, it’s a pity that a photo of the largest beluga was not preserved to confirm the record, since this happened in 1827.

In 1922 and 1924, the same fish were caught near the mouth of the Volga and in the Caspian Sea - 75 pounds (1224 kg), where the body weighed about 700 kg, the head weighed 300 kg, and the rest was caviar. The National Museum of Kazan houses a 4-meter stuffed fish caught in the lower reaches of the Volga. Her age is 60-70 years old.

It should be remembered that the largest beluga in the world is the one that was caught and officially recorded. But the fishermen came across specimens for which they did not have enough gear or strength, and they died safely in their environment, giving rise to numerous legends about river monsters. Which, by the way, has every reason, because seal cubs (length - from a meter) have been found more than once in the stomachs of captured Caspian predators..