Original title: 'King of freshwater fish in China' Yangtze River sturgeon declared extinct before 2020
The Yangtze River sturgeon has not entered 2020. Another endemic species of the Yangtze River in China has been declared extinct.
The news was revealed in a pre proof published online recently by the international academic journal Science of the total environment.
The corresponding author of this paper is Dr. Wei Qiwei, chief scientist and researcher of Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, and the first author of this paper is Dr. Zhang Hui.
The researchers said in the paper that the Yangtze River sturgeon is expected to be extinct by 2005-2010.
The pre proof of this paper was published online on December 23, 2019.
According to the surging news, on September 17, experts from the international organization IUCN (World Union for conservation of nature) reported at an academic conference in Hangzhou, Zhejiang that, after the assessment of the expert group, the Yangtze River sturgeon, a endemic species of China, was extinct.
This is another bad news after Baiji (extremely dangerous, Cr, possibly extinct) and Yangtze River shad were declared functionally extinct by researchers.
The expert said the results are being reported to the IUCN office and will be officially updated and published in the IUCN Red List (IUCN Red List of endangered species).
In addition to the extinction of the Yangtze River white sturgeon, the Chinese sturgeon and the Yangtze River sturgeon endemic to China are still assessed as' extremely dangerous'.
The experts reported on the assessment results at an international sturgeon conference held in Chun'an County, Hangzhou.
'thousand catties of wax, ten thousand catties of elephant. "Elephant" refers to the Yangtze River sturgeon. It is said that it can grow to tens of thousands of Jin. Acipenser schrenckii is a large fish with a length of seven to eight meters. It can swim fast. It is known as "water tiger" and "king of freshwater fish in China". It is also one of the ten largest freshwater fish in the world.
Ten years ago, in 2009, IUCN assessed the endangered grade of the Yangtze River sturgeon as "extremely endangered.".
However, in the past 16 years, the Yangtze River sturgeon has never appeared in the search of fishermen and scientists. According to the previous report of surging news, on the first day of the new year in 2003, scientists from the Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Fisheries rescued, released and tracked a Yangtze River sturgeon for the last time. But then, the ship hit the reef, and the radio signal of the released sturgeon also disappeared.
No one could have thought that this might be the last discovery of the Yangtze River sturgeon. Losing this fish, losing the whole species.
IUCN experts said that at present, there is no evidence including imaging to prove the existence of Acipenser. If any individual of the Yangtze River white sturgeon is photographed or captured again, IUCN will reconsider adjusting its endangered status.
According to the previous report of the surging news, Wei Qiwei, a researcher and chief scientist of the Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, revealed in his report that the white sturgeon may have been extinct, and experts are evaluating the situation at the sub Forum on aquatic wildlife protection of the Yangtze River Biological Resources Protection Forum in Wuhan, Hubei Province, on November 4, 2018. Since 2003, researchers have not found any more Acipenser schrenckii, and there are no artificial cultured individuals. But there is still a glimmer of hope. 'some fishermen believe that some waters of the Yangtze River still have white sturgeon. '