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)