in a Beijing aquarium visitors marvel at
a fish known as the underwater panda of
China these specimens though are
relatively small fry Chinese sturgeons
can grow to a whopping 4 meters or 13
feet but it’s been 20 years since
monster fish that large have been seen
in the Yangtze River
Zeb Hogan wants to investigate this
intrepid National Geographic Explorer
has been Criss crossing the world
looking for what he calls mecha fish von
China’s legendary Yangtze River he
surveys the massive three gorges dam a
boon to the Chinese economy but a
potential hazard for migrating sturgeon
Yangtze River third largest river in the
world
you know the Three Gorges Dam was
essentially chopped in half and so from
the perspective of a fish there’s
nothing that affects the environment
like a dam Zeb joins top Chinese expert
Wade she’d at a research facility to get
a close look at this legendary Asian
fish this five-year-old is hefty but
smaller than it would be in the wild and
the largest adults seem to have
disappeared so 20 years ago there was a
thousand-pound fish yeah and now in the
last 20 years you haven’t seen any that
big decades ago there were some 2,000
spawning Chinese sturgeon in the Yangtze
now that number is down to several
hundred more likely victims of dams boat
traffic poaching and pollution
conservationists are now locked in a
race against time to save this Titan of
the river from extinction at a hatchery
juvenile Asian sturgeon are kept safe in
an incubation tank the goal is to raise
them until they’re sexually mature and
then release them into the river to
spawn
unfortunately these guys will not reach
adulthood until they’re about ten years
old and the oldest fish in the facility
are only about five that means it will
be several more years before the first
fish can be released
however Zeb quickly learns that even
youngsters are forced to be reckoned
with
big fish it’s a strong fish and it’s
taeil’s free so it can really whip
around but thinking its eyes covered and
they calm down quite a bit once their
eyes are covered the giant sturgeon is
not the only big freshwater fish
endangered in Asia
zip necks moves on to Mongolia were the
world’s largest trout maybe the one that
got away he and fellow researcher Brad
Allen
cast around for some of these
increasingly rare fish in the
fast-moving waters of the egg River
scientists have determined that Eurasian
trout known locally is the time in are
now too rare to support commercial or
recreational fishing known as ferocious
predators the time in can live for fifty
years and grow to be larger than Zeb
himself he finds only younger fish still
marvels at their power this is a hooch
Oh time man the world’s largest trout
it’s a apex predator these fish will eat
ducks mice basically anything that it
can fit in its mouth after measuring and
tagging these big trout are returned to
the river
Zeb hopes that somewhere out there in
the world’s lakes and rivers giant fully
mature fish are hiding from humans but
we must act now to save them before they
disappear completely it’s becoming clear
a pattern is emerging big fish are in
trouble probably 50 to 70 percent of
freshwater fish over six feet in length
are threatened with extinction there may
even be giant freshwater species that we
don’t even know about yet we might lose
a fish before we even knew it existed
but for many of these species it’s not
too late so of course action is needed
immediately Mongolia is considering
making it illegal to kill time in and
sports anglers must release their
catches back into the water
conservationist supports such measures
and also urge that communities clean up
their waterways and regulate development
if not the only way to see mega fish may
be in aquariums and even then they may
be far smaller than the Giants that once
swam with the dinosaurs
sponsored by National Geographic mission
programs taking science and exploration
into the new millennium
a fish known as the underwater panda of
China these specimens though are
relatively small fry Chinese sturgeons
can grow to a whopping 4 meters or 13
feet but it’s been 20 years since
monster fish that large have been seen
in the Yangtze River
Zeb Hogan wants to investigate this
intrepid National Geographic Explorer
has been Criss crossing the world
looking for what he calls mecha fish von
China’s legendary Yangtze River he
surveys the massive three gorges dam a
boon to the Chinese economy but a
potential hazard for migrating sturgeon
Yangtze River third largest river in the
world
you know the Three Gorges Dam was
essentially chopped in half and so from
the perspective of a fish there’s
nothing that affects the environment
like a dam Zeb joins top Chinese expert
Wade she’d at a research facility to get
a close look at this legendary Asian
fish this five-year-old is hefty but
smaller than it would be in the wild and
the largest adults seem to have
disappeared so 20 years ago there was a
thousand-pound fish yeah and now in the
last 20 years you haven’t seen any that
big decades ago there were some 2,000
spawning Chinese sturgeon in the Yangtze
now that number is down to several
hundred more likely victims of dams boat
traffic poaching and pollution
conservationists are now locked in a
race against time to save this Titan of
the river from extinction at a hatchery
juvenile Asian sturgeon are kept safe in
an incubation tank the goal is to raise
them until they’re sexually mature and
then release them into the river to
spawn
unfortunately these guys will not reach
adulthood until they’re about ten years
old and the oldest fish in the facility
are only about five that means it will
be several more years before the first
fish can be released
however Zeb quickly learns that even
youngsters are forced to be reckoned
with
big fish it’s a strong fish and it’s
taeil’s free so it can really whip
around but thinking its eyes covered and
they calm down quite a bit once their
eyes are covered the giant sturgeon is
not the only big freshwater fish
endangered in Asia
zip necks moves on to Mongolia were the
world’s largest trout maybe the one that
got away he and fellow researcher Brad
Allen
cast around for some of these
increasingly rare fish in the
fast-moving waters of the egg River
scientists have determined that Eurasian
trout known locally is the time in are
now too rare to support commercial or
recreational fishing known as ferocious
predators the time in can live for fifty
years and grow to be larger than Zeb
himself he finds only younger fish still
marvels at their power this is a hooch
Oh time man the world’s largest trout
it’s a apex predator these fish will eat
ducks mice basically anything that it
can fit in its mouth after measuring and
tagging these big trout are returned to
the river
Zeb hopes that somewhere out there in
the world’s lakes and rivers giant fully
mature fish are hiding from humans but
we must act now to save them before they
disappear completely it’s becoming clear
a pattern is emerging big fish are in
trouble probably 50 to 70 percent of
freshwater fish over six feet in length
are threatened with extinction there may
even be giant freshwater species that we
don’t even know about yet we might lose
a fish before we even knew it existed
but for many of these species it’s not
too late so of course action is needed
immediately Mongolia is considering
making it illegal to kill time in and
sports anglers must release their
catches back into the water
conservationist supports such measures
and also urge that communities clean up
their waterways and regulate development
if not the only way to see mega fish may
be in aquariums and even then they may
be far smaller than the Giants that once
swam with the dinosaurs
sponsored by National Geographic mission
programs taking science and exploration
into the new millennium
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