Working staff perform a computerized ultrasonic scanning for an
endangered Chinese sturgeon yesterday at a fish raising center in
Jiading District of Shanghai.
The sturgeon, in good health as the check shows, was found
injured at the mouth of Yangtze River on July 17.
The Chinese sturgeon is one of the oldest vertebrates in the
world and has existed for more than 200 million years. However,
decreasing river levels and pollution have taken their toll on fish
stocks. The number of sturgeon that migrate to the Yangtze each
year to spawn has dropped from 2,176 in 1987 to just 500 now, said
Chen Xihua, a researcher from the Yangtze River Fisheries Research
Institute.
(Shanghai Daily, China.org.cn December 19,
2007)
