First Verified Record for Shortnose Sturgeon, Acipenser brevirostrum LeSueur, 1818, in Minas Basin, Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia, Canada

Abstract

A shortnose sturgeon was caught in fisherman Wayne Linkletter’s intertidal fish weir in Minas Basin near Economy, Nova Scotia, on June 29, 2013. It was an adult, 73.7 cm fork length and weighed ~4.5 kg. Fishers in Minas Basin relate that they have captured shortnose sturgeons in their weirs in the past decade (1 or 2 fish/y) but this is the first sighting verified by photographic evidence. In Canada shortnose sturgeons were previously known only from the Saint John River and Harbour. The new record extends the coastal range of the species by approximately 165 km and is a new addition to the fish fauna of Nova Scotia.