Chinese sturgeon spawns debate over endangered species’ ‘sexual decline’
- One team of researchers says a dam over the Yangtze is affecting the fish’s gonads while another team says the big issue is a change in water temperature
- The sturgeon was once found all over East Asia but stocks have plummeted in the last century
Is the biggest, rarest fish in the Yangtze River losing the ability to breed?
The jury is still out, with two studies on the possible degeneration of sexual organs in Chinese sturgeon – a freshwater predator that can grow as big as a shark – spawning an unusually acrimonious debate.
On one side is a team from the Ministry of Water Resources; on the other, a group of researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In the middle is Acipenser sinensis, a rapidly dwindling fish species that can grow up to five metres (16.4 feet) long and dates back to the age of the dinosaurs, according to fossil records.
In the early 20th century, the sturgeon was found across East Asia, from the Pearl River Delta in southern China to the Korean peninsula and Japan.
But in recent decades, despite desperate efforts to save the species, the sturgeon has disappeared altogether except in the Yangtze, China’s biggest river.