More than 30,000 Chinese sturgeon fries reared in captivity were set free Saturday at downstream of the just completed Three Gorges dam in the middle reach of the Yangtze River.

Sturgeon, which lives in the Yangtze River for some 140 million years, is high on the list of China's most endangered animals. The fish swims into the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea and returns to the upstream of the freshwater river only in spawning season.

The sturgeon fry is reared by the Chinese Sturgeon Research Center and the China Three Gorges Project Corporation.

Liu Denghong, director of the center said booming navigation and construction of reservoirs on Yangtze have affected the natural spawning of the fish. However, experts have grasped artificial breeding techniques to sustain the fish population in the river. Since 1984, about five million artificially-bred sturgeon fries have been freed into the Yangtze River.

(Xinhua News Agency May 21, 2006)