HONG KONG: The extinction of the Chinese language Paddlefish and crazy Yangtze Sturgeon, announced by the International Partnership for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), unleashed a torrent associated with comments on China’s social media platforms on Friday (Jul 22) urging more environmental protection.
The IUCN’s latest list of threatened varieties, published on its website on Thursday, showed that hundred per cent of the tour’s remaining 26 sturgeon species are now at risk of extinction, up through 85 per cent in 2009.
“The assessments are based on new calculations which show their particular decline over the past three generations to be higher than previously thought, ” the preservation group said, incorporating that the reassessment had also confirmed the extinction of the Chinese language Paddlefish.
Both the Chinese Paddlefish and the Yangtze Sturgeon were common species in the Yangzte river container which has been plagued by heavy shipping traffic, overfishing and water pollution.
The topic has been one of the most discussed upon China’s Weibo, the social media platform comparable to Twitter, on Fri.
“A natural population that resided for 150 million years was in fact made extinct simply by modern civilisation? I would like to ask: Where is usually our civilisation? inch one user known as Snow Mountain mentioned.
The Chinese Paddlefish was one of the world’s biggest fresh water fish species and could grow up to 7m in length. The IUCN first declared it “critically endangered” in 1996.
The particular Yangzte Sturgeon, that could grow up to 8m, was highly sensitive to increased sound on the river. Its meat was considered a delicacy in China and it seemed to be fished as a source of caviar.
The nation has a breeding programme for the sturgeons yet has not been successful from maintaining them within the wild. China applied a fishing ban in some parts of the Yangzte river within 2021.
“Everyone, support the ban on fishing within the Yangtze River, and protect the habitats that are still in the Yangtze River, ” an user called Lychee said.