Critically endangered Chinese sturgeon may be even worse off than we thought, reports a team of researchers from the China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research in Beijing.
These ancient fish are anadromous, which means they live in the ocean and migrate up rivers to spawn in fresh water. For the Chinese sturgeon, this annual spawning quest brings them up China’s Yangtze River.
At least, it used to. Once threatened by overfishing, these fish had a remarkable recovery after their commercial fishing was banned in 1983. But in recent decades, the sturgeon have faced a new threat: massive hydroelectric dams on the Yangtze that block the way to their spawning grounds.
Sturgeon of the past may have trekked nearly 1,900 miles (3,000 kilometers) upstream to reach one of 19 possible spawning sites. But dam after dam has now blocked off their route, starting with the 1981 Gezhouba Dam that ...
