Nathalie Desse-Berset

Ancient Sturgeon Populations in France Through Archaeozoological Remains, from Prehistoric Time Until the Eighteenth Century

The recent discovery in France of A. oxyrinchus in archaeological sites along the Atlantic coast has led to the creation of an inventory of bony sturgeon remains all over France, and the review of specific determinations according to morphological criteria. Whilst A. sturio remains to this day the only identified species on the Mediterranean side, rivers of the Atlantic coast and the north of France have sheltered by a majority another species, A. oxyrinchus, from the Neolithic and at least until the seventeenth century. This latter species, identified in the Final Neolithic (5,000 years ago) represents the first colonizing by sturgeons of French waters at the end of the last glaciation. More than 30 sites have revealed sturgeon remains, some of which are very high upstream. Both species (A. sturio and A. oxyrinchus) were present on the Atlantic front and the Channel–North Sea. Today, new questions are raised and discussed.

Discrimination of Acipenser sturio, Acipenser oxyrinchus and Acipenser naccarii by Morphology of Bones and Osteometry

Studying ancient sturgeon populations according to archaeological remains requires the identification of the species through bone morphology. Osteometry makes it possible to determine the different sizes and age categories of ancient specimens by measuring specific bones which are correlated with the same measurements taken on modern specimens of known total length (TL) and mass. These references have been established for Acipenser sturio, Acipenser oxyrinchus (both attested in Europe from the Neolithic) and Acipenser naccarii, providing a set of morphological and osteometric criteria to discriminate the above-mentioned species. Through these methods, the size distribution of ancient sturgeons of different periods and locations can be reconstructed. The frequent presence of large-sized specimens of A. sturio and A. oxyrinchus on the French Atlantic and North basins strongly suggests their sympatry.

Sturgeon Recovery Plan in the Rhône River (France): Preliminary Results on Species Determination and Habitat Suitability

Sturgeons were living in the Rhone River (France) until their complete extirpation in the mid 1970s. They disappeared without a certainty about species identity and about sympatry between Acipenser sturio and Acipenser naccarii, as occurred in the Po and Guadalquivir rivers. Preliminary studies were launched in 2005 by the Migrateurs Rhone Mediterranee (MRM) association to overcome this lack of knowledge and to evaluate the lower Rhone River environment suitability for sturgeon. Twelve sturgeon specimens from the Rhone River and the French Mediterranean coast were found in museums and samples for genetic analyses were taken from 10 of them (analyses in progress). Genetic analyses (cytochrome b) on five sturgeon bone remain (among 2500 remains available) samples more than 2000 years old found in the city of Arles, close to the Rhone River, clearly show that A. sturio was living in this river. Morphological comparisons between ancient bone remains and recent skeletons from A. sturio and A. naccarii are in progress. Environment studies show the existence of possible suitable habitats for sturgeon in the Rhone river, mainly spawning and feeding grounds. This should be confirmed by more precise studies. All these preliminary results are very encouraging regarding the possible restoration of sturgeon in the Rhone River.

Brief Introduction to Sturgeon with a Special Focus on the European Sturgeon, Acipenser sturio L. 1758

Sturgeon comprise a small family of fish with 4 genera and 27 species. The genus Acipenser accounts for 17 species. In general, they are known for their large size, their unusual appearance, and their famous fish product, caviar. They are ancient fish ranging only over the northern hemisphere. All Eurasian sturgeon species are currently under threat, while the situation is slightly better in America. The European sturgeon colonized the continent from the Black Sea to the Baltic, through the Mediterranean, the Western Atlantic Ocean, the English Channel, and the North Sea (Fig. 1.1).

What Is the Future for the European Sturgeon

The present book appears 20 years after the peer-reviewed proceedings of “Acipenser”, the first International Symposium on sturgeon (ISSI) (Williot 1991) where two preliminary investigations on the European sturgeon were presented (Castelnaud et al. 1991; Rochard et al. 1991).

Iconography of the European Sturgeon in France

Although not numerous, sturgeon representations can be found in sculpture, painting, engraving and numismatics. Several paintings, especially those of the Flemish school, show sturgeons, among other fish species, in still life or in marketplace scenes (among which those of Frans Snijders or Willem Ormea, seventeenth century painters). The species and the size of the specimens are generally imprecise, even though the sturgeon sizes are often evoked in textual data. Sauvage in 1883 writes that the common sturgeon can reach a size of 5–6 m long, but that this event is becoming rarer and rarer. He says that during the previous century its presence on the Picardie, Normandie and Bretagne coasts was accidental. It sometimes swam up the Seine River; accidentally some individuals ended up in the Yonne River (Moreau 1897). Some sturgeons were captured beyond Sens between Laroche and Auxerre.