Sturgeon returning to the Yangtze River

Zhuang Ping, former director of the East China Sea Fisheries Research Institute at the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, noted that the observation of natural breeding of the Yangtze sturgeon is an encouraging sign, a signal that ecological restoration in the Yangtze is taking effect.

But Zhuang added that larger-scale conservation of the Yangtze River must continue and deepen.

He pointed out that the upper Yangtze River alone is home to more than 100 rare fish species found nowhere else on Earth, and that the recovery of the entire Yangtze ecosystem is essential for rebuilding a wild Yangtze sturgeon population.

Looking ahead, research teams will continue to monitor year-round changes in the spawning ground's habitat and study the sturgeon's migratory movements in this section of the river, in order to systematically evaluate the success of natural reproduction in the spawning ground.

— CHINA DAILY