Beluga

Beluga (Huso huso; Ukrainian: biluha). A valuable commercial fish of the sturgeon family. Belugas are over 4m in length and reach up to 1,000 kg in weight. They live in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov and in the spring lay their eggs in the limans. In the 18th century belugas swam up the Dnipro River as far as the Prypiat River and Desna River.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]