Beluga Fish: Beluga Sturgeon Size, Caviar and US Ban

When people search for a beluga fish they almost always mean the beluga sturgeon, Huso huso, a giant sturgeon of the Caspian and Black Sea basins and the source of beluga caviar. It is one of the largest bony fish ever recorded. Wikipedia's accepted record is a female caught in the Volga estuary in 1827 that weighed 1,571 kg (3,463 lb) and measured 7.2 m. Larger claims of up to 3,000 kg and 12 m exist but are disputed.

Fish caught in recent times are much smaller: generally 142 to 328 cm long and 19 to 264 kg, according to the same article. Females are typically about 20% larger than males.

The name causes two mix-ups:

• The beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas) is a white toothed whale of Arctic waters, a mammal and not a fish. Wikipedia says the word beluga comes from the Russian for white.
• The Beluga in the Roblox game Fisch is that whale, not the sturgeon. Fischipedia lists it as an Apex-rarity catch during the in-game Narwhal Migration event, with weights from 800 to 6,300 kg that have nothing to do with the real animal.

Like all sturgeons it has rows of bony plates (scutes) instead of ordinary scales. Wikipedia gives the counts for Huso huso as 9 to 17 scutes along the back, 28 to 60 along each side and 7 to 14 along each side of the belly, with 48 to 81 soft rays in the dorsal fin and 22 to 41 in the anal fin.

The beluga is a fish eater: Wikipedia says fish make up 73% of the adult diet, and the largest individuals in the Caspian eat mullets, shads and other sturgeons. Juveniles switch to eating fish once they reach about 8 to 10 cm.

Outside its native range you are far more likely to meet a white sturgeon, lake sturgeon or a farmed hybrid than a wild beluga. If you photograph a sturgeon side-on and the head from below, the app will suggest the likely species; the scute rows and snout shape are what separate them.

Very rare. The IUCN lists it as Critically Endangered (Wikipedia). Its historical range covered the Caspian, Black, Adriatic and Azov seas; today it survives in the Caspian and Black Sea and a few rivers such as the Danube, which Wikipedia says is the only river in the EU where it still reproduces naturally.

Its life history makes it slow to recover. Males mature at 12 to 16 years and females at 16 to 22, and a female spawns only every four to seven years (Wikipedia). A fish killed before it matures has never bred.

Restocking is under way: Wikipedia reports that more than 7,000 three-month-old belugas were released into the Danube, that Italy has bred them in captivity since 2015, and that a Florida farm has supplied more than 160,000 fertilised eggs to the Caspian region since 2017.

Wild beluga caviar and meat cannot be imported. The US Fish and Wildlife Service suspended imports and re-exports of beluga sturgeon caviar and meat from the Caspian Sea on 30 September 2005, and from the Black Sea basin countries (Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, Turkey and Ukraine) on 28 October 2005. The reason given was that those countries had not supplied the laws and management plans required under the species' threatened listing, which took effect on 21 October 2004. The same notice ended the old allowance that let travellers carry up to 250 grams of beluga caviar for personal use.

There are two narrow exceptions described on Wikipedia: caviar from beluga hybrids is still sold in the US, and in 2016 one Florida facility received a permit exemption to trade in beluga sturgeon and its caviar. If a US seller offers beluga caviar, ask which of these it is.

Scarcity on both ends: few wild fish are left, and a farmed female takes 16 years or more to produce her first eggs (Wikipedia). Wikipedia's Caviar article calls beluga the rarest and most expensive form of caviar, and its Beluga caviar article gives a market range of $7,000 to $22,000 per kg ($3,200 to $10,000 per lb) (Wikipedia, checked 25 September 2026). The eggs are the largest of the commonly used roes, and the lighter grey eggs from older fish are valued most.

Which fish egg is the most expensive? Wikipedia names Almas, a golden caviar from rare albino sturgeon 60 to 100 years old from the southern Caspian: 1 kg sold for £20,000 (then about US$34,500) (Wikipedia, Caviar article, checked 25 September 2026).

Traditionally, yes. Wikipedia's Caviar article says commercial production historically meant stunning the fish and removing the ovaries. Newer methods take the eggs through a small incision or by stripping, which lets the female live and produce roe again; the article notes that removal by massage may give higher quality and a more sustainable supply.

The meat has been eaten too: the 2005 US suspension covered beluga meat as well as caviar (US Fish and Wildlife Service), and Wikipedia notes the swim bladder was once used to make isinglass, considered the best available. Today any beluga meat or caviar you can legally buy comes from farms or permitted hybrids. Wild belugas are protected, and Wikipedia records poaching cases even now, including a 140 kg, 2.5 m fish in 2021.

Research and drafting for this page were assisted by AI, and every figure was checked against the sources listed below on 25 September 2026. Where two sources disagree, both figures are given with their source.