China and Russia Release 500,000 Sturgeon to Save Species

When BBC documentarians traveled to China's northeastern Heilongjiang Province in 2008 hoping to film the river's legendary giant sturgeon, they discovered something heartbreaking. The fish had vanished completely, wiped out by chronic overfishing.

But that grim chapter is starting to turn around. Chinese and Russian environmental authorities recently gathered in Tongjiang City to release nearly half a million juvenile sturgeon back into the Amur River, which the two nations share.

The joint ceremony saw 200 juvenile Amur sturgeon and 485,000 kaluga sturgeon fry released into the water. Scientists also added 5.2 million fry of other valuable fish species, including silver and grass carp, to help restore the river's ecosystem.

Many of the sturgeon received fluorescent marker injections that will track them throughout their lives. This data will reveal critical information about where they travel and how they reproduce, helping scientists fine-tune future conservation efforts.

The scale is impressive, but it's taken painful lessons to get here. By 2005, breeding programs had already released 8.45 million Amur sturgeon fry, yet populations continued declining.

China initially hoped to protect its sturgeon caviar industry through captive breeding. When that approach failed to save the wild population, the government ended all legal commercial harvesting in 2007.

The Ripple Effect

The shift in strategy appears to be working. Chen Huaifa, director of the Heilongjiang Aquatic Animal Resources Conservation Center, reports that monitored sturgeon are now living to five years and older, something not recorded just eight years ago.

In 2025, researchers documented a sturgeon reaching eight years old. That's the age when male sturgeon begin spawning for the first time, a milestone that could finally kickstart natural population recovery.

Local fisherman Li Changyou, who's worked these waters for decades, sees hope in the changing tide. "Seeing bags of fry being released into the river makes me truly happy," he told reporters.

He understands what's at stake beyond the fish themselves. "Stock enhancement is not only about protecting resources, but also about preserving a way of livelihood for fishermen like us and future generations."

The Amur sturgeon remains critically endangered, but cross-border cooperation is giving these prehistoric survivors a fighting chance at coming back from the brink.