A giant Chinese sturgeon arrived at its new home in the Beijing
Aquarium on Sunday, watched by a huge crowd of visitors and
staff.
The long-awaited leviathan arrived after a 24-hour trip from the
Jingzhou Yangtze River Fishery Research Institute, in central
China's Hubei
Province, where it was captured last October.
The sturgeon, 3.2 meters long and weighing in at 222 kilograms,
was captured last October in the Yangtze River. Experts believe it
is 20 to 30 years old.
The life expectancy of the Chinese sturgeon is about 35
years.
Facing possible extinction, the Chinese sturgeon is sometimes
referred to as the "panda of the water" or as a "living fossil."
Experts believe the species to be 140 million years old.
Although the central government has placed the Chinese sturgeon
under the most stringent protection, dams on the Yangtze River and
illegal fishing have reduced the population. Reports indicate that
as late as last year, the fish were occasionally found for sale in
Shanghai markets.
The aquarium is attempting to simulate the fish's natural
environment, and researchers hope to find an effective method of
breeding the fish artificially, Hu said.
According to Zou Guiwei, deputy director of Jingzhou's Yangtze
River Fishery Research Institute, the rare fish grows to maturity
in salt water but swims upstream -- generally in the Yangtze River
-- to reproduce. It was Zou's institute that captured the fish last
October.
Currently, the survival rate of artificially bred Chinese
sturgeon is only about 1 percent.
Before next Sunday, another 11 sturgeons will join the giant
from Jingzhou, according to Beijing Aquarium General Manager Hu
Weiyong. From April 22, Earth Day, a total of 26 Chinese sturgeons
will be on display to the public.
Original reports indicated that a 3.6-meter-long, 432-kilogram
female sturgeon, the biggest found in China in two decades, was
being moved from Jingzhou to Beijing, to be on display by April
22.
On March 17, China Daily reported that during the
previous week, "the largest wild Chinese sturgeon ever captured in
the river died in central China's Hubei Province from a combination
of senility, exhaustion after reproduction and an unbearably low
temperature."
(China.org.cn, China Daily April 4, 2005)