To mark King Charles III’s Coronation, a team of conservationists led by ZSL have launched the UK Sturgeon Conservation Strategy and Action Plan, a science-based guide developed by experts which meticulously outlines the action required to recover numbers of Atlantic and Critically Endangered European sturgeons in the UK.

This UK-wide action plan forms part of a larger call to recover populations of the Critically Endangered royal fish, following successful conservation action in France and Germany helping to save European sturgeons from the brink of extinction.

Encouraged by increased recent sightings in UK coastal waters – following these major European reintroduction efforts – the team are working to make UK waters a safe space for sturgeon to make a royal comeback.

The actions outlined in the report include restoring the key UK coastal, freshwater and estuarine sturgeon habitats that sturgeons use throughout their lives, improving the connectivity of rivers and working with fishers to reduce deaths caused by accidental bycatch of the fish; important measures for providing safe habitats for native sturgeons and other marine life to thrive.

Both European and Atlantic sturgeons are fully migratory species – they begin their lives in rivers, before travelling out to sea where they will live most of their 60-year-long lives in coastal and marine waters, only returning to freshwater as adults every few years to reproduce. Protecting the full range of habitats that sturgeons rely on is essential for safeguarding their futures, and by taking urgent action to restore UK sturgeons, other species that live in the country’s waterways and coastlines will also benefit.

The action plan was created as part of the work of the UK Sturgeon Alliance, a team of scientists and conservationists from ZSL, Blue Marine Foundation, Institute of Fisheries Management, Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, Severn Rivers Trust, and Nature at Work, working to restore native sturgeons through conservation action and education. The team are also urging members of the public to report any sightings to the Save the Sturgeon website – information which will help them work with partners to understand how sturgeons are using waters across the UK and Europe.

There were media reports of this story in The Times [paywall] and Telegraph [paywall]. The ZSL press release can be read here and the full action plan can be found here.