More than 10,000 Chinese sturgeon fry, 200 junior sturgeon and two adult fish were released into the Yangtze River Thursday at Yichang port, central China's Hubei Province.

The captivity-reared Chinese sturgeon were released with help from the Ministry of Agriculture and the China Three Gorges Project Corporation.

The newly released fish are now on their way downstream before they swim into the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea.

"Protection of the wild species should be tightened during any project construction," said Vice Minister of Agriculture Niu Dun, who referred to the Three Gorges Dam project.

The activity marks the 20th anniversary of China's efforts to protect the endangered fish, whose exact number remains unknown.

Containing the physical characteristics of both ancient and modern fish, the Chinese sturgeon is regarded as a kind of living fossil. It is also referred to as the "panda under the water."

The rare and endangered Chinese sturgeon is a top-level protected species in China. During the past 20 years, five million of the fish were released into the wild.

From autumn to summer every year, shoals of sturgeon head for the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, usually to the section in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, to spawn.

Yet experts say that fewer and few Chinese sturgeon swim back to the source of the river to spawn because of over-fishing and pollution.

Source: Xinhua