Status Review for North American Green Sturgeon (Acipenser medirostris)

The green sturgeon, Acipenser medirostris, is the most widely distributed member of the sturgeon family Acipenseridae. Like all sturgeons, green sturgeon are anadromous, but are also the most marine oriented of the sturgeons. The only known green sturgeon spawning locations are the Klamath, Sacramento, and Rogue rivers along the west coast of North America; however they are known to range in nearshore waters from Mexico to the Bering Sea and are commonly observed in bays and estuaries with particularly large concentrations entering the Columbia River Estuary, Willapa Bay, and Grays Harbor during the late summer (Moyle et al. 1992). The reasons for these concentrations are unclear, but are probably not due to spawning or feeding.