The country's first and largest nature reserve for the endangered
Chinese sturgeon, with a planned area of 276 square kilometres,
will be set up on the east coast of Chongming Island in East
China's Shanghai this year, the Shanghai Aquatic Office said.
The reserve, located where the Yangtze River enters the East China
Sea, will save 5,000 immature sturgeon a year by providing them a
safe, comfortable environment, the office said.
Fishing activities there will be forbidden every spring and summer
when the young sturgeon are maturing before their entry into the
sea, according to the office.
In
addition, a State-level fish research laboratory will be
established there by the office to study and protect other
endangered water species.
The Chinese sturgeon is a rare species from the Mesozoic Era (144
to 65 million years ago), and it is sometimes referred to as a
"living fossil fish" or "the Chinese giant panda in water."
Adult Chinese sturgeons migrate from the sea to the upper reaches
of the Yangtze River to spawn every year. The young fish then swim
down the river to the area around Chongming Island where they stay
for some months before entering the sea.
Due to the deteriorating environment along the river and the
increasingly frequent shipping traffic, adult Chinese sturgeon have
almost disappeared from the river in the last decade.
It
will take the young sturgeon more than 20 years to become sexually
mature, which brings even more difficulties to their survival, the
office said.
Gao Xuexiang, an official with the office, said the municipal
government had formally ratified the massive comprehensive
ecological project weeks ago and will invest the first 10 million
yuan (US$1.2 million) for the project within three years.
The continuing financial support of the government will help
protect the overall ecology around Chongming Island, which also
boasts a large population of rare birds that sojourn there every
year during their migration from Australia to Siberia, Gao
said.
Two decades ago, the country established a small protection zone
for the fish's breeding in Yichang, in Central China's Hubei
Province, a city near the Three Gorges on the upper reaches of the
Yangtze River.
The laboratory in the zone has developed mature artificial
fertilization procedures to help the Chinese sturgeon survive.
But the overall ecology along the Yangtze is still essential to the
survival of the species, Gao said.
(China
Daily July 24, 2002)