A rare encounter with Dragon of the Yangtze
The prehistoric fish circles endlessly, brushing its three-metre-long body against the sides of the concrete tank and occasionally surfacing to offer visitors a rare glimpse of the Dragon of the Yangtze River.
The Chinese sturgeon, an endangered species, is rarely seen in the wild. An artificial breeding centre outside Jingzhou city , in Hubei province, could be the only hope for survival of the rare fish.
Although the state has named the Chinese sturgeon a protected species, dams on the Yangtze River and illegal fishing have reduced the population. Two of the fish appeared for sale in a Shanghai market this summer, and those who have tasted the forbidden delicacy declare it delicious.
The founder of the Yangtze River Fishery Research Institute, Wei Qiwei, hopes the Chinese sturgeon population will recover through natural means.
Still, he is carrying out research to breed the fish in captivity and hopes to release them into the Yangtze.
Professor Wei would like to expand his experiment beyond his 20 large sturgeon, the survivors of a batch born in 1997. But a lack of state funds for conservation efforts has limited the scope of the project.
'We don't have enough money. The state doesn't have specialised funding for this,' he said.
Chinese sturgeon can eat 5 to 10 per cent of their body weight every day, and the specially-mixed fish food used by the centre costs 20 yuan per kilogram. The fish are kept in outdoor tanks with water piped from a nearby lake.
Li Luoxin , who manages the centre, proudly shows visitors its laboratory and the indoor tanks for thousands of smaller fish.
The centre has already released fish into the Yangtze, tagging them to aid research in the event they are caught again. Professor Wei and his team also spend part of autumn in the waters below the Gezhou Dam in Yichang city, catching and releasing sturgeon for study.
