On October 13, near the Jinsha River Chicken Wing Wharf in Baixi Street, Xuzhou District, Yibin City, a precious Yangtze sturgeon was suspected of being injured and stranded on the shore.
At 10 o'clock in the morning, when the staff of the Xuzhou District Aquatic and Fishery Administration Station carried out daily patrol work at 100m upstream of the Jinsha River Chicken Wing Wharf, they found that the suspected injured Yangtze River sturgeon was stranded on the shore and had poor vitality.
At 10:30 a.m., researchers from the Fisheries Research Institute of the Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences arrived at the scene to inspect the injuries on the body surface of the Yangtze sturgeon, and found that the Yangtze sturgeon had no obvious external injuries or infections on the body surface, but was emaciated. The Yangtze sturgeon was identified as having a total length of 114 cm, a body length of 100 cm, and a weight of 12.4 kg.
At 11 a.m., the on-site rescue work of the Yangtze River sturgeon was completed, and the scientific researchers transferred it to the rare and endemic fish rescue base in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs to carry out follow-up rescue work.
"In the process of carrying out routine patrols, our fishery law enforcement officers and rangers found a suspected injured Yangtze sturgeon stranded 100 meters upstream of the Jinsha River Chicken Wing Wharf, and we immediately took temporary rescue and promptly contacted relevant experts from the Provincial Fisheries Research Institute to the scene for the next step." Peng Jun, head of the Aquatic Industry Development Unit of Xuzhou District Agriculture and Rural Bureau, introduced.
Wang Bin, an assistant researcher at the Fisheries Research Institute of the Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said after inspecting the Yangtze sturgeon: "This fish does not have typical trauma and infection, mainly because it is relatively emaciated. ”
The Yangtze sturgeon is a national first-class protected animal in China, listed as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and has the reputation of "giant panda in the water", mainly distributed in the lower reaches of the Jinsha River and the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and major tributaries, but due to multiple factors, its population has declined sharply, and was once considered extinct in the wild. With the implementation of a series of ecological restoration and protection measures such as the 10-year fishing ban plan of the Yangtze River, its wild population has rebounded, which is of great significance for maintaining the ecological balance and biodiversity of the Yangtze River Basin.