Escaped fish put old species at risk

Hybrid sturgeon released along with the floodwater

Experts are conducting a field investigation to assess flood damage to the ecosystem of the middle and lower reaches of the China's longest river - the Yangtze - after nearly 10,000 tons of foreign and hybrid sturgeon washed out of a breeding facility in heavy water flows.

Scientists worry that the hybrid and foreign species may now interbreed with endangered purebred Chinese wild sturgeon in the river, whose numbers have declined to dangerously low levels. Only 100 are thought to remain in the Yangtze.