Given the current state of the population, the quality of the essential habitats necessary for the development of the European sturgeon does not seem likely to prevent, in the short term, the gradual regaining of the lower stretches of the Gironde – Dordogne – Garonne basin following repopulation operations.

Among the emblematic measures already taken, the extraction of gravel has no longer been officially authorised in the Gironde estuary since October 2008 by order of the SAGE Local Water Commission.  In February of the previous year, a request for authorisation had already been rejected.

On the other hand, the long term recolonisation of the species in this basin and throughout its range requires that these essential habitats be restored and the obstacles that prevent the sturgeon from moving freely should be removed.  Indeed, the natural habitats of the European sturgeon suffer from serious structural damage in general .  It is inevitable that the increasing alteration of their quality (particularly from the point of view of the presence of chemicals and the quantity of the water resource) will lead in the long term to these habitats being unable to meet the ecological requirements of the species, which will insurmountably jeopardize the possibility of the species surviving.  Keeping and maintaining a navigation channel open in the Gironde estuary which serves the Port of Bordeaux persists in having an important impact on the juvenile fish that feed on invertebrates living in the sediments.  These sediments are periodically stirred up which incurs the risk of further pollution of the food chain.

The priority is to ensure that existing habitats do not deteriorate and to identify the habitats that can be restored, in particular those that can support a population through the release of alevins.  This requires:

- the statutory protection, which needs to be completed, of existing essential estuary and river habitats within the framework of the Natura 2000 network and existing planning documents.  In France these tools are mainly as follows: the  Natura 2000 guidelines, the Guidelines for the Development and Management of Waterways (for the catchment basins of watercourses), the Management Plan for Migratory Fish ( Plagepomi);

- the identification and mapping of existing and potential habitats throughout the whole range of the European sturgeon;

- the identification and mapping over the same area of obstacles to migration;

- the mapping of sources of pollution and the identification of needs for the quality and quantity of water resource in these essential habitats;

- the incorporation of this information in management plans for catchment basins under the implementation of the Water Guidelines and making the information known to the different actors involved, in particular those who police the waters.