The Adriatic sturgeon (Acipenser naccarii) is a species of Sturgeon native to regions of Southern Europe stretching from Greece to Italy. Like most Sturgeon, it is anadromous, living in fresh, salt, and brackish water. The IUCN lists it as Critically Endangered, and it is perhaps Functionally Extinct in the wild as a result of serious over fishing in recent years.
Dark Waters[]
Italy's Lake Monster[]
When searching for an explanation to the Lake Garda monster, Jeremy Wade found medieval accounts from monks of large fish tucked away in rocky caves near an island in the lake. Jeremy initially expected that the Adriatic Sturgeon could explain the monster, however, he learned from some that it was possibly extinct.
However, he located one at an aquarium, and tracked it to a Sturgeon farm nearby. The owner of the farm stated that he released some of them into the wild in an attempt to revitalize the population. Since he had been doing this for around twenty years, it was possible that some of these had reached full size.
Adriatic Sturgeon can reach around the right length to match the reports of the monster, and since they have swim bladders, they release bubbles as they move up the water column, so its possible that this could explain the bubbles that some eye witnesses stated they saw from the monster.
Jeremy helped release some juvenile Adriatic Sturgeon, even though he was told that most are consumed by the invasive Wels Catfish before they can reach maturity. The Adriatic Sturgeon is also the only plausible explanation for the reports of the Lake Garda Monster from the middle ages, since the invasive Wels had not been introduced at that time.