Early records indicate that the first market for sturgeon on the East Coast was established in 1628 near Brunswick, Maine, where the fish were cured and shipped to Europe. Sturgeon was the first primary cash crop of Jamestown, Virginia, and was second only to lobster among important fisheries in the late 1800s. In the late 1800s East Coast landings were as high as seven million pounds a year, but by the 1920s that number had fallen to 22,000 pounds. In the Chesapeake Bay sturgeon landings peaked in 1890, after which the mid-Atlantic fishery rapidly declined. Landings have averaged only 100,000 to 250,000 pounds per year since the 1950s.
Atlantic sturgeon continue to be a valued commercial fish, however.
The sturgeon population has been reduced by over fishing, 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.