Chinese Sturgeon (Acipenser sinensis) in the Yangtze River:: a hydroacoustic assessment of fish location and abundance on the last spawning ground

Chinese sturgeon ( Acipenser sinensis), was once widely dispersed in almost all watersheds draining towards the western coasts of the Pacific Ocean. Today, the species is one of the highly endangered fish species in China and can be found only in the Yangtze and Pearl rivers and their adjacent coastal and marine areas. Due to the construction of the Gezhouba Dam, spawning grounds for the fish were drastically restricted but fortunately remained in the Yangtze River at a small-scale site located just downstream along a short reach of the river closely to the dam. Since 1998 we have undertaken annual investigations in this area using hydroacoustic methods, in order to estimate the size of spawning cohort and the selection of habitats. Based on strength and sizes of echo signals, the mature individuals of Chinese sturgeon were discriminated from the other fish species and then numerated. Most of the fish were detected close to the bottom and preferred to distribute themselves in the areas with water depths less than 15 meters. Because of different bottom structures with homogeneous granular material, the distribution of the fish was mainly influenced by water depths and perhaps current patterns. Total amount of sturgeons in the entire reach were estimated by simply summing up the numbers according to the identified densities in areas of different depths. Usually, there were about two separate spawning activities of Chinese sturgeon which took place annually during the observation period, with the scale of spawning activity being much larger at the first time than during the following spawning events. Estimations on the sizes of spawning cohorts on the restricted spawning ground before the first wave of upstream migrants appeared, were about 400 and 200 individuals during the periods of 1998-1999 and 2002, respectively. It was demonstrated that: a) the space of the current spawning site is not sufficient to accommodate all mature individuals simultaneously, and b) a serious decline in spawning stocks size of Chinese sturgeon during the investigational period seems to be indicated when comparing the counts between 1998 and 2002. The decline is about 50% which is a highly alarming figure.