Sterlet
In the north sterlet is the only representative of sturgeons, constantly living in freshwater reservoirs. In the last century and in the beginning of our century sterlet could be frequently seen in Ladoga and its large inflows (the rivers of Volhov, Syasi), rarely – in Onego. It’s a well known fact that during a long period of time living sterlet had been bringing to Saint Petersburg in fishing-cribs from the basin of the Volga. Sometimes it happened that these fishing-cribs broke. But the absence of sterlet in the current for a long time makes us think that its acclimatization failed in our region.
Since 1954 sterlet had been repeatedly brought into the basin of Onego from Severnaya Dvina. Although, it hasn’t yet reached a significant quantity, we can already say with certainty about the success of its acclimatization: sterlet of various ages could be seen in the Shuya River, Lake Onego, some areas of gulf of Petrozavodsk. Some specimen reach large sizes. For example, in September 1983 near the village Polovina during check-fishing the sterlet weighting 6,5 kg was caught. Today’s catch of sterlet is prohibited in order to form a stable number for the trade of this fish.
Baltic or Atlantic Surgeon
Today in Karelia a surgeon can only be seen in Lake Ladoga, where it gets from the Gulf of Finland through the Neva River. Almost all surgeons’ catches deal with the southern part of Ladoga, and usually that were surgeons of large size. For example, in 1951 in gulf of Volhovskiy at a depth of 4 m the surgeon 286 cm lengthwise and weighting 113 kg was caught. Earlier in 1930 in the same place large specie of surgeon was also caught (the length – 265 cm, the weight – 128 kg). As it turned out, it was a female one, and the hard-roe’s mass was 25 kg.
Into Ladoga the surgeon gets during a spawning period, from here it goes up to places of spawning into bigger inflows of the southern part of the lake – the rivers Volhov, Sviri, Syasi. It spawns in summer, June-July, on stony-pebbly grounds and even on wooden logs at fast current.
There is no special trade for this kind of fish in Ladoga. It sometimes gets into seines that are set near the shores at depths of 4-7 m. Some explorers think that besides the passing through surgeon there is also a local freshwater fauna in the basin of Ladoga. Today in Lake Onego there is no the Atlantic surgeon, but earlier, before dams of electric power station on the river Sviri were built, it used to get into Onego.
