The Yangtze River white sturgeon did not enter 2020
Another endemic species of the Yangtze River in China was declared extinct
The international academic journal Science of The Total Environment revealed the news in a research paper (pre-proof) published online.
paddlefish
The corresponding author of the paper is Dr. Wei Qiwei, chief scientist and researcher of the Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, and the first author of the paper is Dr. Zhang Hui.
The researchers said in the paper that the Yangtze River white sturgeon is expected to be extinct by 2005-2010. A pre-proof of the paper was published online on December 23, 2019.
Screenshot of the original text of the paper
Lonely white sturgeon
When it comes to sturgeon, the Chinese sturgeon is far more famous than the white sturgeon. In fact, the large family of Chinese sturgeon is quite lively, its relatives and friends have 25 species (including subspecies), and there are 7 species distributed in China.
In contrast, the White Sturgeon family is somewhat deserted. It has only one "homogeneous" relative, still far away in North America, distributed in the Mississippi River Valley, called spoon sturgeon.
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They both belong
Bony fish, cartilaginous scales
Sturgeon, White Sturgeon
The white sturgeon is the largest freshwater fish in the world, with a maximum body length of up to 7 meters. Sichuan fishermen have a saying, called "thousand pounds of wax and ten thousand pounds of elephants" - "wax" refers to the Chinese sturgeon, "elephant", refers to the white sturgeon.
This is a big guy. To tell the truth, the white sturgeon is not proud. Its head , back and caudal fins are bluish grey , with only the abdomen white. The white sturgeon is bare, has little cover on its body, and only has a primitive scale called hard scales on the leaves on the tail fin.
It has a long, pointed snout, so it was also called "elephant trunk fish" by the ancients; the mouth is on the ventral surface of the head, and there is only a row of tiny teeth in the mouth. Despite this, the white sturgeon is still fierce and can eat, specializing in swallowing all kinds of small fish. The gills of the white sturgeon are large and have large mouths, but the eyes are small, small enough to be a little funny, and grow in front of the mouth near the back of the head.
The tail of the white sturgeon is also very personal - it is crooked, and the tail spine is curved upwards.
If you dissect the white sturgeon, you can also find that its spine is very primitive, supported by a round rod-like spinal cord, and most of the bones of the body are cartilage.
These body structures are a reminder to you – it's really ancient. Billions of years of time have stalled on the white sturgeon. Fossil studies have shown that the earliest fossils of Sturgeon species can be found in the Late Jurassic Period.
Populations have declined dramatically in the 1990s
Chinese sturgeon spawn in the Yangtze River and then take their juveniles to the open sea; but white sturgeon is different. Its whole life is basically spent on the Yangtze River, and at most it swims to the mouth of the Yangtze River.
The spawning grounds of the white sturgeon are distributed in the lower reaches of the Jinsha River and the main stream of the Yangtze River above Chongqing, and mature individuals have the habit of upstream migration before the breeding season.
Wang Chengyou, an associate researcher at the Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, said that in fact, since the 1990s, the number of white sturgeon has decreased significantly. As early as 1996, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species listed the white sturgeon as "critically endangered".
As a huge fish that doesn't look outstanding, the white sturgeon is "silent". Except for the fishermen who work with the Yangtze River, it is difficult for most of the public to see live white sturgeon; it does not have the resounding name of "Chinese sturgeon". If you can't see it, if you don't understand it, there will be less concern about its fate.
The reason for the decline in populations
It's multifaceted —
White sturgeon only live in the Yangtze River. As a flagship species at the top of the Yangtze River food chain, it is not much in number and is more susceptible to human activities.
Deterioration of the ecological environment, decline of biological resources, high-density shipping, water conservancy projects, illegally set up power grids and rolling hooks... All this makes the situation of the white sturgeon more and more difficult.
On December 11, 2002, fishermen accidentally caught a female white sturgeon with a length of 330 cm and a weight of 116 kg in the Xiaguan waters of Nanjing, Yangtze River. The white sturgeon was badly injured, with several rolling hooks on its body and a wound about 22 cm long in its lower palate.
This is the only live white sturgeon found in the world in the past 10 years. At that time, the Ministry of Agriculture ordered that it be rescued at all costs.
Specialists are treating injured white sturgeon
However, in early January 2003, the white sturgeon was declared dead. The experts worked hard for a month and were unable to bring it back to life. The media at the time wrote: "No one knows if this is the last white sturgeon on the earth."
Netizens sighed: We have never met, and it is said that it is a farewell
The news of the "extinction of the white sturgeon" made netizens sad:
The 10-year fishing ban plan for the Yangtze River was implemented
Recently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued a notice to implement a ten-year fishing ban plan for the Yangtze River in natural waters other than aquatic biological nature reserves and aquatic planting resources protection areas in the main stream and important tributaries of the Yangtze River from this year.
Under the rapid and extensive economic development model of the past few decades, the Yangtze River Biocomposity Index has reached the worst "fish-free" level. Therefore, it is imperative to achieve a ban on fishing and let the Yangtze River recuperate.
The Yangtze River is an important ecological treasure house in China, with more than 4,000 species of aquatic organisms distributed, and is one of the rivers with the richest aquatic biodiversity in the world. In the "Directory of Wild Animals under National Key Protection" approved by the State Council in 1988, there are 9 species of fish in the Yangtze River Basin, namely the first-class protected animal white sturgeon, the Chinese sturgeon and the Yangtze River sturgeon.
In addition to the extinction of the Yangtze River white sturgeon, the Chinese sturgeon and Yangtze River sturgeon, which are endemic to China, are still assessed as "status" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). In 2017 and 2018, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs successively launched the "Chinese Sturgeon Rescue Action Plan" and the "Yangtze River Sturgeon Rescue Action Plan".
According to @People's Daily, the implementation of the ten-year fishing ban plan on the Yangtze River will be the largest recuperation in the history of the Yangtze River.
Ancient people's clouds: a few poppies do not enter the pond, fish turtles are invincible, but due to overfishing, the Yangtze River has fallen into a "fishless" situation.
Fish should be released, and people should reflect. Exhaustion and fishing is no fish, respect for the law is no worry, the rise and fall of fish, the essence is nature for the development of the light of the light.
Give the Yangtze River a ten-year rest period
The Yangtze River can also restore the world to life
Source: Science and Technology Daily
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