As we all know, the Chinese sturgeon is a national key protected wild animal, no individual or organization is allowed to fish at will, even if it is accidentally mistakenly caught, it should also contact the local fishery administration department at the first time or release it in time.
Recently, the practice of a man in Wuhu, Anhui Province, stunned everyone, who not only caught a wild sturgeon in the Qingyi River (a tributary of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River), but also cut it into 4 pieces and put it in the refrigerator, and even showed off on social platforms. Later, after the identification of relevant units, this sturgeon is a national key protected wild animal - Chinese sturgeon.
(Source: Screenshot of Qingliu video report)
In this case, the opinions of netizens are not uniform: a considerable number of netizens believe that this is Russian sturgeon or hybrid sturgeon, and it is necessary to make further identification. It is worth noting that since January 1, 2021, the Wuhu section of the Yangtze River and its important tributaries (including the main stream of the Qingyi River) have been completely banned from fishing, and the man is likely to have violated the fishing ban regulations at the same time. If after subsequent DNA comparison, it is concluded that the species is really a Chinese sturgeon, then the man will have to "add one degree to the crime", and the situation will be more serious.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="60" > Wild Chinese sturgeon: extinct in the wild in the next 10 to 20 years</h1>
There are three species of native sturgeon living in the Yangtze River, namely the white sturgeon, the Chinese sturgeon and the Dashi sturgeon, the first of which (the white sturgeon) has been declared extinct, and the latter two are also on the verge of extinction. Many domestic experts have set the tone for Chinese sturgeon: if targeted conservation measures are not taken, in the next 10 to 20 years, wild Chinese sturgeon may be "wild extinction".
Professor Wei Qiwei of China's Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute is a senior expert on the study of Yangtze River sturgeon, and he once frankly said: "If you can only choose a fish that represents the ecology of the Yangtze River, it is undoubtedly the Chinese sturgeon." It is understood that the price of Chinese sturgeon on the market is set at 190,000 to 370,000 yuan, providing a basis for illegal fishing and other sentencing, but this kind of clear price is also another threat to Chinese sturgeon, and the black interest chain lurks in it.
In fact, wild Chinese sturgeon entered an endangered state as early as 1983-1992, and between 2003 and 2012, the endangerment of Chinese sturgeon escalated again and entered a state of extreme danger. In order to protect the Chinese sturgeon, China has made great efforts, and the Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute and other units have carried out more than 40 years of follow-up research, which has made great contributions to the breeding and stocking and protection of the Chinese sturgeon.
In 1983, China's older generation of fishery science and technology workers successfully conquered the artificial breeding technology of Chinese sturgeon, and have been insisting on artificial release for many years since then. For example, in 2019, China's Three Gorges Group released 120,000 artificially bred sub-second-generation Chinese sturgeon into the Yangtze River. For example, since 1984, the Chinese Sturgeon Research Institute has released more than 60 times, releasing as many as 5 million Chinese sturgeon of various sizes, and some large-sized Chinese sturgeon are even more than 1 meter long, and have been artificially carefully raised for 3 to 6 years.
Although various units and institutions have invested a lot of effort in the resource restoration of Chinese sturgeon, the wild population of this species has still not seen significant improvement. The frequency of fishermen accidentally catching Chinese sturgeon has gradually increased, which to some extent reflects the results of stocking, but due to the influence of the Yangtze River dam (especially the Gezhou Dam), it has always been difficult for wild Chinese sturgeon to reproduce naturally.
In 2013, the natural breeding of Chinese sturgeon began to be interrupted, and in 2015 it was interrupted again, and then from 2017 to 2020, it was interrupted for 4 consecutive years! There are many indications that the life history of wild Chinese sturgeon has been difficult to form a closed loop, and the release of seedlings has little supplement to wild populations, and the prospects are not optimistic.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="59" how hard is it to > the Chinese sturgeon of the Yangtze River? </h1>
There are 27 species of sturgeon in the world, and China has introduced a lot of them from abroad in order to develop aquaculture, such as spoon sturgeon (duckbill), Russian sturgeon, European sturgeon, Atlantic sturgeon and so on. These exotic sturgeon are not only confined to the pond, but also some have fled into the wild, distributed in major river basins such as the Yangtze, Pearl and Yellow Rivers, posing a threat to small native fish.
paddlefish
As mentioned earlier, netizens pointed out that the sturgeon caught in the Qingyi River may be Russian sturgeon, and this possibility does exist from the distribution area of the species. For ordinary fishermen, it is really difficult to accurately distinguish them. Before the ban on fishing in the Yangtze River, many fishermen could not accurately distinguish between Russian sturgeon and Chinese sturgeon, and they were confused about their appearance characteristics, which may be a potential reason for the incidents of misattainment or even accidental eating in the past.
In addition to facing the bycatch of fishermen and the poaching of outlaws, the more difficulties of the Chinese sturgeon are in themselves.
Breeding groups of Chinese sturgeon have been found in the Yangtze River and Pearl River basins in China, and fishermen in the Minjiang River in Fujian Province have caught a giant Chinese sturgeon with a length of 350 cm and a weight of 198 kilograms. Among them, the Chinese sturgeon in the Yangtze River Basin enters the breeding period from September to November every year, and the broodstock spawn in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River or the lower reaches of the Jinsha River, and then return to the ocean after completing breeding.
Unlike other fish, the Chinese sturgeon has a very long breeding cycle. According to the study, the male Chinese sturgeon first sexual maturity age is 9 years old, and the female fish is 14 years old, which means that a Chinese sturgeon takes about ten years to begin to reproduce, and the long reproductive cycle determines that very few individuals can develop to the mature stage.
From the cases of bycatch in recent years, it can also be found that most of the individuals of sturgeon are under 80 centimeters, which are obviously immature Chinese juvenile fish, and are most likely to be artificially released. The ban on fishing in the Yangtze River provides a ten-year protection period, but it can only barely ensure that the Chinese sturgeon develops from fry to maturity, and in the same time, the four major fish have completed 2 to 3 rounds of breeding, and small fish such as crucian carp can breed every year.
The problem encountered by the Chinese sturgeon
In contrast, the breeding cost of the Chinese sturgeon is too high. What's more, no one can guarantee that the Young Chinese Sturgeon, which is highly dependent on the ecology of the Yangtze River, will grow up smoothly, and the survival rate may be as low as 100,000 or even one in a million. There are many problems faced by the Chinese sturgeon, such as the improvement of the Yangtze River channel and its coast, the shipping of the Yangtze River, water pollution, the development of offshore resources, the barrier effect of Gezhou Dam and the resulting hydrological changes.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="51" > protect Chinese sturgeon, starting with changing perceptions</h1>
According to China's Criminal Law, the illegal hunting and killing of rare and endangered wild animals under key national protection shall be punished with fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention and a fine; if the circumstances are more serious, it will be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years but not more than ten years and shall also be fined; if the circumstances are particularly serious, it will be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than ten years, and shall also be fined or have property confiscated.
However, the protection of Chinese sturgeon can not only rely on legal provisions, but more importantly, to improve the awareness of species protection among the masses, understand the survival status of Chinese sturgeon, and improve species identification ability and scientific literacy.
Here is a brief introduction to the survival level of the species. In 2010, the Chinese sturgeon was listed as a critically endangered species by the IUCN, where "critically endangered" is an assessment of the survival status of the species. The survival level of species can be divided into seven levels: extinction (EX), extinction in the wild (EW), critical endangerment (CR), endangered (EN), vulnerable (VU), near threatened (NT), and no need to consider (LC), and the degree of risk of each level is reduced in turn.
So, what does extinction mean? In a scientific sense, the extinction of a species refers to the fact that there is conclusive evidence that the species died in the last individual worldwide, such as the dodo bird that became extinct in 1681, the Taiwan clouded leopard in 1983, and the Yangtze River white sturgeon in 2019.
Extinction and extinction in the wild mean different things. Wild extinction refers to species that have disappeared in the wild but can survive under artificial culture or captivity conditions, and this part of the captive population has lost the ability to survive or reproduce in the wild. According to this definition, Chinese sturgeon is currently in a transition phase from critically endangered (CR) to wild extinction (EW) (as Chinese sturgeon can only breed under captive breeding conditions).
Is it true that Chinese sturgeon will become extinct in the wild within the next 10 to 20 years, as experts predict? Whether this prediction will become a reality will take time to test. In short, in recent years, the repeated occurrence of Chinese sturgeon accidental capture, casualties is really heart-wrenching, whether this national treasure level of the Yangtze River flagship species can survive permanently in the wild, need the joint efforts of all of us, effectively improve the awareness of species protection, so as not to repeat the "joke" of the Yangtze River white sturgeon.
Note: After the Yangtze River white sturgeon was declared extinct, most of the respondents in China said that they had never heard of this species and did not know what this species looked like. According to the survey, more than 90% of the respondents did not understand the Yangtze River white sturgeon, and even some authoritative media also misplaced the photos of the white sturgeon into spoon sturgeon when reporting. I hope that the Chinese sturgeon will not follow in the footsteps!