There are two species of sturgeon native to the waters of the United Kingdom: the Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus) and the European sturgeon (Acipenser sturio), although they were long thought to be the same species. Both species have faced enormous declines across their European ranges due to a combination of overfishing, pollution, habitat modification and degradation. The Atlantic sturgeon is now listed as ‘Vulnerable’ and the European sturgeon as ‘Critically Endangered’ on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list of threatened species. Due to their extirpation from the UK river systems and a lack of robust historical data, modern records classify sturgeons only as ‘vagrant’ or ‘visitors’ to the British waters.

With the aim to document existing records of sturgeons in British waters and analyse their distribution. Historical data on sturgeon captures and sightings were collected from digitised newspaper archives, museum records, and reports from anglers and commercial fishermen. These were further complemented by recent UK captures or sightings and modern records from European restoration programmes. Over 5,000 records dating from 1198 to the present have been compiled, covering coastal and river environments. More than half of these include location information, which enabled analysis of their historical spatial distribution in the UK. Insights from this analysis contribute to the UK and pan-EU conservation efforts, as well as informing policy decisions, and providing a foundation for future restoration programmes. The dataset has also been made publicly accessible as an interactive online map, displaying all known UK sturgeon records over time.

Sturgeon,Historical record,Newspaper archive,Museum record,Distribution analysis,Acipenser sturio,Acipenser oxyrinchus