Chinese Sturgeon

The Chinese sturgeon is a critically endangered species native to China. It is largely dispersed over the main streams of the Yangtze River and coastal regions of Qiantang River, Minjiang River, and Pearl River. The adults are predators that consume any aquatic animal that can be swallowed, while the young feed on aquatic insects, larvae, diatoms, and humic substances. In the 1970s, an estimated 2,000 Chinese sturgeon spawned in the Yangtze River every year. Now, that number is down to several hundred due to the threats to its habitat, such as pollution and other human action. The channel for adult fish migrating to traditional spawning sites such as the Jinsha River in the upstream of Yangtze River was blocked after the construction of the Gezhouba Dam hydroelectric power project in the early 1980s. The Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Fisheries Sciences, the Institute of Hydrobiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Hydro-ecology of the Ministry of Water Resources of China, and the Chinese Sturgeon Research Institute of the Three Gorges Group have been collaboratively monitoring Chinese sturgeon spawning since the 1980s. However, from 2013 to 2014, no new spawning activity was detected and led to the belief that the Chinese sturgeon was near extinction. …