Celine Pun

https://news.yahoo.com/iconic-chinese-paddlefish-wild-yangtze-232130046.html

Fri, July 22, 2022 at 4:21 PM·3 min read

The International Union for Conservation of Nature has officially verified that the Chinese paddlefish and wild Yangtze sturgeon are extinct on their list of threatened species.

The Chinese paddlefish, or Psephurus gladius, was one of the largest freshwater fish in the world, weighing up to 660 pounds and measuring up to 10 feet in length. They were gray, had a white underbelly and small, round eyes. These fish were endemic to the freshwater wetlands in the Yangtze and Yellow River basins. They migrated upstream to their estuary in the East China Sea to spawn during mid-March to early April.

The Chinese paddlefish had been protected since 1989. Because the iconic fish species was economically valued for their rarity, they were fished for human consumption and often as bycatch.

In 1996, the International Union for Conservation of Nature declared…