Nottinghamshire Wildlife Expert asks could Sturgeon become re-established on the River Trent?
In his latest column Erin McDaid of the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust questions whether stugeon could be re-established on the River Trent.
A recent surprise catch of a sturgeon weighing in at 48lb by an angler, reported in the angling press, on the River Trent begs the question as to whether these ‘Royal’ fish — which are said to be protected by the crown in the same way as swans are — could one day return as a breeding population to the Trent and other UK Rivers.
Two species of sturgeon — the critically endangered European and near threatened Atlantic or Baltic Sturgeon are considered native to UK waters and would once have thrived in freshwater, estuaries and marine environments.
However, because of impacts such as overfishing, and physical barriers to migration, there have been no official records of native sturgeon in UK freshwater habitats since 1994.
So complete has the decline in these species been, that they have taken on an almost mythical dimension.
Their sheer size when mature and long-term scarcity and subsequent absence, makes it hard for us to envisage fish measuring up to six metres (almost 20 feet) long and weighing hundreds of pounds, have a natural place in our ecosystems - but they very much do.
Some years ago, I remember welcoming a community theatre group to Attenborough Nature Reserve as part of an initiative to raise awareness of these amazing creatures and their place in our landscape.
It was amazing to see the reaction of children from a local school as the actors from The Desperate Men theatre group carried in a model of a huge fish based on an historic capture on the Trent — which would make the recent 48 pounder look like a minnow.
The last known catch on the Trent — caught near the village of Holme on the Trent below Newark in 1902 — was said to be eight and half feet long and weighed in at 250 pounds.
The largest ever caught on a UK river, weighing in at over 400lb, was caught a year later on the River Severn.
There are over 5000 records of UK captures of native sturgeon which were regularly present up until the 1900s and after surviving and thriving for over 400 million years, their decline and disappearance is a sorry state of affairs.
Increased reports of large sturgeon caught on The Trent — including a 27lb specimen caught near Gunthorpe in 2022 — give rise to the prospect of the species’ long-term return, but yet none of these appear to have been confirmed as native species.
Given that small numbers of native Atlantic sturgeon, from stocks released on rivers in mainland Europe, have been recorded in our coastal waters, it is not out of the question that the fish caught on the Trent could be native animals aided to reach higher stretches of the river during increasingly frequent significant floods.
However, they may also be non-native species that have escaped from commercial fisheries during periods of flood. Whether or not these are native specimens — they do seem to be thriving.
When you add in the concerted efforts to protect and restore sturgeon populations across Europe and an established UK Action Plan to bring these magnificent fish back, and investment in new facilities such as the huge fish pass at Colwick — I feel we can have real hope that we can turn the clock back for these magnificent beasts.
The successful return of native otters to England’s’ river systems over the past two decades where they had previously become extinct also highlights that it is possible to bring species back from the brink.
