From the relict population of the European sturgeon Acipenser sturio, a captive breeding stock of specimens has been established in France, in order to prevent extinction of this species and to produce offspring to be released again to the wild. We genetically analyzed 23 wild-caught specimens of this French captive population, as well as 27 specimens of artificially produced offspring, at 12 newly developed microsatellite loci. We quantify the genetic distance among any pair of sturgeons belonging to the captive stock. In order to maintain the genetic variability and minimize inbreeding, we suggest dissortative mating, i.e., mating of any reproducing female with a distantly related male. We explicitly identify such genetically distant suitable mates for any female of the French breeding stock. Forced dissortative mating could be facilitated by cryoconservation of sperm, such that sperm of putatively suitable partners would be available at any time.