Sturgeon were the first primary cash crop of Jamestown, Virginia, and were second only to lobster among important fisheries in the late 1800s. Landings just prior to the turn of the century were estimated at seven million pounds per year. In Chesapeake Bay the landings of Atlantic sturgeon peaked in 1890, after which the fishery rapidly declined. Landings have averaged only 100,000 to 250,000 pounds per year since the 1950s. The sturgeon population has been reduced by overfishing, pollution and dam construction.
Directed fisheries are active only in New York and Canada.
Hatchery rearing, careful management and conservation efforts are being directed at reviving both population numbers and the fishing industry. No sport fishery for the Atlantic sturgeon exists. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission adopted its Fishery Management Plan for the Atlantic Sturgeon in 1990. The plan requires states to control harvest by adopting either a moratorium on harvest, a seven-foot minimum size limit with a landings monitoring program, or an equivalent conservation measure. Prior to 1929, commercial landings data was collected by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Commercial Fisheries through Market house surveys.