The Kaluga Sturgeon is one of the world's largest sturgeon species, likely surpassed in size only by the Beluga. Under the USSR, this fish was protected, however, after Perestroika, this fish was faced with a ceaseless onslaught. As the fish became rarer and rarer, people hunted even more for its precious eggs. Salmon fishermen earn as much money from one Kaluga as from three years of salmon fishing.
Description[]
Jeremy Wade was tipped off of a report of three Russian fishermen that were killed on the Amur River. When Jeremy traveled there, he had a lot of trouble tracking down the culprit. People are very afraid of talking about it because of the police. Gangs are organized to hunt down the fish. After Jeremy identifies it as the killer, he decides to go fishing for one. Almost immediately, police stop him and ask why he is fishing. After hearing that he is fishing for Kaluga, they tell him that he needs to get special permission.
Jeremy then joins a team of scientists and searches for Kaluga. Unfortunately, the largest one they can find is only a few pounds. However, they also find a very small individual and Jeremy states (very hopefully) that one day it could grow to over 1000 pounds, and could drag fishermen out of their boats into the water.
The three fishermen who were killed on the Amur probably ran into one of the last of these giant River Monsters. However, Jeremy believes it is still possible that these fish will make a comeback.
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