![\"Baby](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Baby-sturgeon-measurement-scaled.jpeg\")
Baby sturgeon measurement. Credit: Bianca Roberts<\/p>\nRecord numbers of baby sturgeon have been recorded on the Rioni River in Georgia, as efforts to conserve stocks of these critically endangered fish appear to be paying off.<\/p>\n
A project led by the nature conservation charity Fauna & Flora aims to reverse the decline of sturgeon within the Rioni River, where populations of at least 4 species are found. <\/p>\n
Nine years since the project began, researchers in Georgia are seeing encouraging results, with more sturgeons recorded in 2026 than in the previous eight years combined.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Baby sturgeon measurement. Credit: Bianca Roberts<\/p>\n
Estimates suggest that global sturgeon populations have plummeted by more than 90% within the last 50 years, with many of the 27 species rated Critically Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).<\/p>\n
\u201cSturgeon shared the water with dinosaurs, but they have become perilously close to extinction in recent decades,\u201d explains Bianca Roberts from Fauna & Flora. <\/p>\n
\u201cHabitat loss, alongside unsustainable fishing and trade have created an upstream battle for these living fossils. <\/p>\n
“As relative giants amongst freshwater species, sturgeons play a critical role in their ecosystem and have done for over 200 million years \u2013 we can\u2019t just let them disappear off the face of the Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Rioni](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Rioni-River.jpeg\")
Aerial view of the sturgeon monitoring team on patrol along the lower part of the Rioni River. Credit: Stephanie Foote \/ Fauna & Flora<\/p>\n
The Rioni River flows for around 200 miles between the Caucasus Mountains and the Black Sea and is one of just three spawning river systems that remain in Eurasia. The research team operate in conjunction with Ilia State University in Tbilisi to capture and analyse sturgeons from the Rioni in order to build a database of species recruitment and diversity within the river. Having taken DNA samples and biometric measurements, all of the captured sturgeon are safely returned to the wild.<\/p>\n
On the ground, meanwhile, is a team of ‘citizen inspectors’, who work to raise awareness of sturgeon conservation and inspect for illegal fishing, covering up to 5km of riverbank during a single patrol. <\/p>\n
Fauna & Flora currently support 17 inspectors, most of whom already live within the communities in which they engage. These ongoing patrols and research efforts, in conjunction with a new 500-hectare Government-approved nature reserve in the Rioni basin, offer continued hope to the sturgeon of the eastern Black Sea.<\/p>\n
Ioane Bibileishvili, Tamar Edisherashvili and Dimitri Pipia cleaning a net beside the Rioni River. Credit: Bianca Roberts \/ Fauna & Flora<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is very promising to have recorded such an unprecedented number of juvenile sturgeons in Georgian waters this year,\u201d added Roberts, who is Projects and Development Manager for the Caucasus Region,<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter years dedicated to data collection, awareness raising and strengthening protections for these wonderful fish, the efforts of our team and other conservation actors, academia, government and the committed community members we work alongside are beginning to pay off.\u201d<\/p>\n
More wildlife stories from around the world<\/p>\n
Top image: Liavrenti Janelidze (Sturgeon Citizen Inspector) and Tamar Edisherashvili, Sturgeon Research Team. Credit: Kakha Gogichashvili \/ Fauna & Flora<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Record numbers of baby sturgeon have been recorded on the Rioni River in Georgia, as efforts to conserve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":809952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-809951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=809951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/809952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=809951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=809951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=809951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}