Sturgeons are among the world's most endangered fish — the welfare dimensions of their conservation crisis and captive breeding programs.
Sturgeon conservation welfare operates at multiple levels: the welfare of wild fish whose migration routes are blocked by dams, who are poached by gill nets and longlining, and whose spawning habitats are degraded; and the welfare of captive-bred fish in aquaculture programs. Wild sturgeon blocked from migration by dams experience a failure of fundamental biological programming — the drive to spawn that cannot be fulfilled in any alternative location. Poaching by gill net causes drowning stress similar to that experienced by other fish. Captive aquaculture for caviar harvesting — including surgical extraction and returning living fish to holding tanks — raises its own welfare questions about the experience of repeated procedures.