A fine kettle of fish saving species

ON SATURDAY, 700 Chinese sturgeons raised at a breeding center were released into the Yangtze River, in an attempt to boost the population of this endangered species. China Daily writer Zhang Zhouxiang comments:

In 2015, an official survey found 1,864 giant pandas in the wild. In comparison, there are about 100 Chinese sturgeons that swim back to the Yangtze River to spawn every year.

It is hoped the release of the 700 Chinese sturgeons into the wild will help inject new vitality into the species that has a history of at least 140 million years. The fish include both young and adult sturgeons to enrich the species' population using different age groups. And to boost the survival rate of the species in the wild and enhance genetic diversity, more male sturgeons have been released to adjust the gender imbalance.