This infographic brings together more than two decades of sturgeon conservation along the Danube in a single timeline. All 26 sturgeon species are threatened with extinction, and monitored populations fell by 91% globally between 1970 and 2016. At the same time, more than 700,000 fry and larvae have been released into the Romanian stretch of the Danube since 2006, supported by around €5.5 million in investment.

The timeline is built around two interlocking rings. The outer spiral moves from 1998 to beyond 2026, following the different conservation projects, fishing bans, training programmes and restocking efforts. Instead of stretching all of this across a long horizontal timeline, the circular structure keeps more than two decades of events within a single composition.

Around the timeline, I added the context needed to understand the bigger picture: why sturgeons matter, the six main threats they face, the four species found in the Lower Danube and their IUCN status, as well as the legislation that gradually developed from national fishing bans to more coordinated regulation at European level.

With this much information, the main challenge was deciding what should stand out and what should stay in the background. I used one accent colour for project names, so they form a visual thread throughout the timeline, and kept the sturgeon silhouettes as the only illustrative element. The spiral then becomes the main organizing device, turning a long and complicated conservation history into something that can be explored from different points rather than simply read from beginning to end.