getting stuck in the shallow water. The Kaluga Sturgeon can hybridize with the Amur sturgeon. Adult Kaluga Sturgeon have enormous appetites. They eat pike, carp, herring, chum salmon, keta, and most other fish or shellfish that can fit into their mouths. A Kaluga Sturgeon can live up to 55 years. Description The Kaluga Sturgeon is a massive fish, also known as the “River Beluga”. It has a triangular head with several bony plates. Its body is an elongated fusiform body with five rows of bony scutes: dorsal with 10-16 beetles (the first is largest), two laterals (32-46 scutes), and two ventral (8-12 scutes) between rows of small bony scutes grains and rarely more large plate. Lateral scutes are smaller than the dorsal and ventral scutes. The mouth takes up the entire lower surface of the snout, it is lateral, crescent-shaped, and extremely large. Parts of the mouth can move to the side of the head. Under the snout and in front of the mouth there is a transverse row of four flattened laterally barbels. The inner two barbels are more anterior than the outer ones, but they are similar in length. The snout of the Kaluga Sturgeon is short and sharply pointed. It has very small eyes which are located immediately behind its nostrils. Causes of decline There are a few reasons as to why exactly this species is declining. To begin with, they are being severely overfished. Ever since the 1900s, they have been poached at an alarming rate. After World War II, in 1948, 61 metric tons of Kaluga was caught, an unbelievable number for a species of their size (Krikhtin et al. 1997). They are extremely vulnerable to extinction by poaching because they have late sexual maturity. On average their sexual maturity lasts from 6 to 25 years of age. Sturgeon Caviar output, including the Kaluga, from 1957 to 2005, averaged about 117 tons per year. The animals are being hunted down for their unfertilized eggs because sturgeon roe is considered a delicacy to people all across the world (Yang et al. 2006). This market cuts down on the Kaluga population and only hastens the process of their extinction. Another reason for the endangerment is river pollution, especially near spawning grounds. This has led to deformed eggs and has caused defects in birth. Conservation The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora