Status of sturgeon aquaculture and sturgeon trade in China: a review based on two recent nationwide surveys |
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| Authors: | Q Wei J He D Yang W Zheng L Li |
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| Institution: | Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Science, Wuhan, Hubei;;Key Laboratory of Freshwater Fish Germplasm Resources and Biotechnology, Ministry of Agriculture of China, Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Jingzhou, Hubei;;Freshwater Fisheries Research Center, Chinese Academy of Fishery Science, Wuxi, Jiangsu;;China Agricultural University, Beijing;;Fisheries Bureau of Ministry of Agriculture of China, Beijing, China |
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| Abstract: | The authors reviewed the aquacultural history of Acipenseriformes in China, related the legal status and examined the current status of the cultured species or hybrids, origins of seedlings, quantities of production, geographic distribution in farming, and the sustainability for both restocking programmes and human consumption. The census shows that since 2000, the production of cultured sturgeons in China appears to have become the largest in the world. As of 2000, the rapid growth of sturgeon farming in China mainly for commercial purposes has shifted harvests in the Amur River from caviar production to the artificial culture of sturgeon seedlings. This dramatic development has also caused a series of extant and potential problems, including insufficient market availability and the impact of exotic sturgeons on indigenous sturgeon species. Annual preservation of sufficient higher‐age sturgeons should be a national priority in order to establish a sustainable sturgeon‐culture industry and to preserve a gene pool of critically endangered sturgeon species to prevent their extinction. |
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