This footage was filmed and produced 28 March 2024.

[Note: partially no sound]

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠More than 110,000 second filial generation (F2) Chinese sturgeons were released into the Yangtze River from Jingzhou City, central China's Hubei Province, on Thursday to increase wild stocks of the rare species.

F2 is the term to describe the offspring produced by the first filial generation of Chinese sturgeons, which were bred from individuals caught in the wild.

In 2010, five F2 Chinese sturgeons were released in to the wild for the first time, indicating researchers no longer needed to catch wild ones for breeding.

The country's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs will organize the release of more than one million Chinese sturgeons this year, the highest number ever released.

And half of that total will leave for the sea from Jingzhou.

"The Chinese sturgeon that we release will travel down the river to the mouth of the Yangtze River and then enter the sea. After reaching sexual maturity more than ten years later, they will return to the Yangtze River to lay eggs and complete its entire life cycle. More releases will be carried out later in June and November. It is expected that more than 500,000 Chinese sturgeons of F2 generation will be released throughout the year," said Zhou Qing, director of Chinese Sturgeon Conservation Center in the city.

Experts will follow their migration and reproduction activities through satellite tracking, sonar tagging and other technologies.

Believed to have lived at the same time as dinosaurs, the Chinese sturgeon, or "Acipenser Sinensis," has existed for more than 140 million years.

SHOTLIST

Jingzhou City, Hubei Province, central China - March 28, 2024
1. Aerial shots of people releasing Chinese sturgeons into Yangtze River;
2. Various of Chinese sturgeons being released into river;
3. Aerial shot of people releasing Chinese sturgeons into Yangtze River;
4. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Zhou Qing, director, Chinese Sturgeon Conservation Center of Jingzhou (starting with shot 3/partially overlaid with shots 5-6/ending with shots 7-8):
"The Chinese sturgeon that we release will travel down the river to the mouth of the Yangtze River and then enter the sea. After reaching sexual maturity more than ten years later, they will return to the Yangtze River to lay eggs and complete its entire life cycle. More releases will be carried out later in June and November. It is expected that more than 500,000 Chinese sturgeons of F2 generation will be released throughout the year." ;
[SHOTS OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE]
5. Aerial shot of people releasing Chinese sturgeons into Yangtze River;
6. People releasing Chinese sturgeons into Yangtze River;
[SHOTS OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE]
7. Aerial shot of people releasing Chinese sturgeons into Yangtze River;
8. Various of Chinese sturgeons being released into river;
9. Various of workers measuring, marking Chinese sturgeons before release;
10. Aerial shot of people releasing Chinese sturgeons into Yangtze River;
11. Yangtze River.