Status of caught wild spawners and propagation of the endangered sturgeon Acipenser sturio in France: a synthesis

Over the last twenty-years attempts to propagate wild caught spawners of the endangered Atlantic sturgeon, Acipenser sturio, have been carried out. Incidental catches, concentrated in May and June, decreased from 1988 onwards. The allometric relationship between the weight and the length is sex dependent. There are qualitative signs of a degradation of the status of the French population. New needed fiels of investigation which often have already started are: setting up of a confined broodstock, cryopreservation of sperm, assessment of good quality sperm, efficiency of pools of sperms, biotest for in vitro ovulation, molecular genetics, non invasive methods, and potential causes of stress (environmental damages and handling as well).