China's Yangtze River, the world's third longest river, is home to 378 known species(物种) of fish. But the Chinese paddlefish(白鲟), once a common freshwater fish in the river, is no longer a member of it. Although few paddlefish were seen after 1995, they didn't completelybecome extinct until between 2005 and 2010; they were last seen in 2003. According to a recent study, human activities drove the nearly 200-million-year-old animals to extinction.
The Chinese paddlefish, also known as the "panda of Yangtze", was one of the world's largest freshwater fish species. It could grow as long as 7 meters and weigh up to 450 kilograms.
While the Chinese paddlefish was listed as a nationally protected animal in the 1980s, overfishing in the 1970s caused great influence to their population. National Geographic reports that about 25 tons of paddlefish were caught each year during that period. And in 1981, the building of the Gezhouba Dam divided the paddlefish population into two parts, which broke migration patterns(洄游模式)and prevented producing young upstream. This caused the paddlefish to be short of numbers to reproduce.
The problem is that more will be like this, but the hope is that in order to save other endangered Yangtze species, many quicker efforts are being made. Also China introduced a 10-year commercial(商业的） fishing ban（禁令） over 300 parts along the Yangtze River in order to protect endangered Yangtze species.
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