The Gironde basin has probably been the last sanctuary for the European sturgeon since the beginning of the 1970s.  At that time, local professional fishermen, within the association  ADES, drew the attention of public authorities to the need for better management of the species.  Totally protected in France since 1982, when the catching of spawners was becoming an exceptional occurence, the European sturgeon has, since this period, been studied by scientists in order to better understand its biology and attempt to master artificial reproduction of the species.

In order to asses the status of the Gironde population, a vast tagging programme was carried out between 1982 and the beginning of the 1990s by the Cemagref with the help of local fisheries.  This work was continued until 2003 as part of two LIFE programmes (1994 to 2001), with the support of the scientific ship, the Esturial.  An information and awareness campaign within the maritime world on French coasts was carried out along with this tag-recatch programme.  This campaign aimed at facilitating the return of reproductive adults to the spawning grounds.  However, given the critically low population level and the multiple constraints and unknowns faced by the sturgeon during its lifecycle, these efforts have proved insufficient in stopping the decline of the species.

Research has been carried out before, during and after the LIFE programmes, benefiting from specialist advice from abroad and the experiments on other sturgeon species, in order to develop artificial reproduction techniques using reproductive adults from the wild, given the rarity of natural reproduction.  However, the low number of spawners and the difficulties in rearing larvae did not enable viable larvae to be obtained before 1995, despite success in reproduction in 1981 and 1985.

With just one single population left in the world (in the Gironde), the European sturgeon is considered as the most threatened fish species in Europe, being in critical danger of extinction.  How did this situation arise?  The means did not measure up to the challenge, the area of action was insufficient, not all the players were mobilised, regulations were unequally applied and adhered to, and not all the leverages were accessible within the LIFE programmes.  It was therefore necessary to step up the pace, change the scale of the action, involve higher level administrations and obtain national and international commitments to push for a real public will to save the sturgeon on the scale of its historical range.  A turning point came in 2005 thanks to widened mobilisation of forces with new partnerships in France and Germany.

Today the sturgeon is at the hub of political concerns for the conservation of biodiversity and protection of natural aquatic environments, the management of water resource quality and the sustainable development of fishing resources.  A rehabilitation plan, under the aegis of the Bern Convention, has been set up since Autumn 2007.  To date, France has drawn up a national action plan as part of the National Strategy for Biodiversity.  These positive responses to the mobilisation of numerous partners coupled with favourable research results for the support of threshold population levels and the creation of new populations, have, over the last few years, had an increased impact on authorities.  Consecutive success in artificial reproduction programmes and the release of alevins in the Rivers Garonne and Dordogne in 2007 and 2008 have been very encouraging.  However, the quest to save the sturgeon continues to present an immense challenge to politicians, scientists, NGOs, and fishermen.  Together, will we be able to win this race against time?