Entering the waters of the Yangtze River Estuary, 30 Chinese sturgeons, a nationally protected first-class animal, are endangered | Rouge | Water area
New members have joined the wild populations of Chinese sturgeon and rouge fish at the mouth of the Yangtze River. At the 2023 Shanghai Rare and Endangered Aquatic Organisms Proliferation and Release Event held yesterday, as the release channels opened one by one, 30 Chinese sturgeon, a national first-class protected animal, and 20000 Chinese rouge fish, a national second-class protected animal, entered the Yangtze River Estuary waters along the slide and embarked on their journey home.
The proliferation and release activities of rare and endangered aquatic organisms in Shanghai have been held continuously for more than 20 years.
In May of this year, the Municipal Agriculture and Rural Affairs Commission jointly issued the "Opinions on Further Regulating the Release Activities in Public Water Areas of the City", further regulating the release activities in public water areas. "This release activity serves as a guide to promote standardized and scientific release." The relevant person in charge of the Municipal Agriculture and Rural Committee told reporters that before release, the staff installed satellite and internal markers for the Chinese sturgeon, preparing for the evaluation of the release effect of the Chinese sturgeon and the study of its marine life history. During the release process, customized release channels and slides are used to mitigate the impact of water on the released seedlings.
Release is one aspect of protecting aquatic wildlife and plants, and daily rescue, artificial conservation, and reproduction are also important measures to continue the survival of species.
The Chinese sturgeon is the largest surviving fish in the Yangtze River and is already an extremely endangered species, known as the "giant panda in the water". They were born in the Yangtze River and grew up and matured in the ocean. Mature parent fish swim upstream from the mouth of the Yangtze River every year, after about a year and a half, and migrate more than 3000 kilometers to the upper reaches of the Yangtze River to lay eggs and reproduce. The young fish born follow the Yangtze River water downstream and reach the mouth of the river in the spring of the following year. The Yangtze River Estuary is an important transfer station for young Chinese sturgeon to enter the sea, just like how humans travel from plains to plateaus. They undergo about six months of fertilization and adaptation to the marine environment here, and then enter the embrace of the ocean.
"Chinese sturgeon is a species that is highly sensitive to the environment, and has high requirements for the terrain, sediment, water flow, and temperature gradient of spawning grounds. In recent years, due to multiple adverse factors such as migration channel barriers, their living environment has deteriorated, and the number of wild populations has sharply decreased. In the 1970s, there were thousands of Chinese sturgeon parent fish migrating, but now less than 20 have been monitored. Moreover, natural reproduction has not been monitored in upstream spawning grounds for six consecutive years, and species rescue protection is urgent," said Gu Shilian, the head of the Shanghai Aquatic Wildlife Conservation and Research Center.
At present, there are over 500 Chinese sturgeons living in the Shanghai Water and Wildlife Center Chinese Sturgeon Base, including wild Chinese sturgeons that have been rescued and survived from wild waters in recent years, as well as artificially bred "offspring" and "offspring second". Here, the released Chinese sturgeon will undergo wild training, using wave makers to simulate the water flow and wave environment, manually adjusting the salinity environment, and feeding fresh bait to improve its adaptability to the wild.
At the same time, the construction of the center's scientific research capacity is pressing the "acceleration button". The reporter saw on site that the second phase of the Chinese sturgeon protection base project is being accelerated, and the civil construction has entered the final stage. It is reported that the project has a construction area of 40000 square meters and consists of three main pavilions. Among them, the newly built Chinese sturgeon pavilions undertake the function of preserving species, forming a linkage with the first phase of the venue. After being put into operation, the level of facilities will be further improved, and efforts will be made to strengthen research on the protection of rare and endangered species.
