Environmental Biology of Fishes 48: 407–417. 1997.
© 1997Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands
Alternatives for the protection and restoration ofsturgeons and their
habitat
RaymondC.P.Beamesderfer &Ruth A.Farr
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, 2501 Southwest First Avenue, P.O. Box 59, Portland, OR 97207, U.S.A.
Received1.11.1994 Accepted18.3.I996
Key words:Acipenseriformes,life history,populationdynamics, harvest,culture,ColumbiaRiver,hydropower
SynopsisThispaperreviews thelifehistory andhabitat requirements of sturgeons,alternatives fortheirprotection and
restoration inNorthAmerica, and atypicalprotection andenhancement program in theColumbia River.
Sturgeon areuniquelyadapted tomainstemriver systemswhich arecharacterized bytheirlarge scale.diverse
habitats. and dynamicnature. Adaptationsincludemobility,opportunisticfoodhabits, delayedmaturation,
longevity, andhighindividual fecundity.Unfortunately theselifehistory characteristics are now a handicap
for sturgeonbecause offragmentation and destruction of their habitat. Avariety ofhabitat-related alterna-
tives for theprotection andrestoration ofsturgeon were identified in a review of theliterature and asurvey of
sturgeonbiologists andmanagers throughout North America. However,harvest restrictions andsupplemen-
tationusingaquaculture aremuchmorelikely to beimplemented than thesystem-widemeasuresneeded to
affect sturgeon habitat. A program for white sturgeon protection and enhancemment in the Columbia River is a
typical casewhere harvestmanagement and supplementationmeasures arebeing used to optimizeproduc-
tion ofexistinghabitat butsignificantchanges inwater use andhydropower operation areneeded torestore
sturgeon tohistoric levels ofproduction.
Introduction grains for the nineendemic sturgeonspecies. In this
paper, wediscuss keycharacteristics ofsturgeonlife
Giventheirsingularevolutionary, morphological historywhichconstrain populations, alternatives
genetic, andphysiologicaltraits(Grande &Bemis forprotection andrestoration ofsturgeon andtheir
1991, Bemis et al. 1997 this volume, Birstein 1993, habitats which have been identified for North
Birstein et al. 1997 thisvolume), it is no surprisethat Americanpopulations, andprotection andenhan-
sturgeon are alsoecologicallyunique.However,life cementefforts forColumbiaRiverwhitesturgeon
history traitswhichhaveproven adaptive over the which typify theproblemsfaced in manyother pop-
last 100millionyears are now a disadvantage in the ulations.
face ofdrastichabitatchanges andoverfishing dur-
ing the lastcentury. Sturgeon are presentlydeplet-
ed, threatened. orextinctalmosteverywhere they
occur (Smith 1990, Birstein 1993). Biologists
throughoutNorthAmerica aregrapplingwith the
difficulty ofdeveloping protection or recovery pro-Life history and habitat requirementsCriticalhabitat requirements andeffectiveprotec-
tion andrestoration measures can beinferred from