A sharp fall in sightings of the endangered Chinese sturgeon has prompted alarm among scientists, a state press report said Monday.
By last Wednesday scientists had located only 14 young sturgeon near the mouth of Yangtze, compared with 600 last year, sparking concern that the fish is losing its battle for survival in the crowded and polluted Yangtze river.
To blame for the decline was China's nearly three decades of rapid economic development, said Liu Jian, director of a sturgeon conservation area near Shanghai.
"What we have found, the deaths and injuries, are abnormal, and we fear they may be a bad omen for the ecological environment of the Yangtze."
Although the sturgeon is on China's list of most endangered species many are killed, chopped up by ship propellers, or mortally injured after becoming tangled in fishermen's nets.
Scientists with the Yangtze river research institute said the number of sturgeon migrating to the river each year to spawn had dropped from more than 2,000 in the 1980s to just 500.
Xinhua also cited a separate report that warned 600 kilometres (370 miles) of the Yangtze was in critical condition, with pollution, dams and boat traffic causing a dramatic decline in aquatic life.
