The BBC depresses me again with a story about a unique Chinese fish that’s probably already extinct:
A number of fish species vie for the position of the world’s largest freshwater fish, including the arapaima (Arapaima gigas) of the Amazon river and the Mekong giant catfish (Pangasianodon gigas).
At up to 7m, the Chinese paddlefish (Psephurus gladius) is much longer than either, though it may not exclusively live in freshwater.
The fish is suspected to be anadromous, meaning it spends some of its life in marine waters before returning to the river to spawn. But it is so rare that little is known about its behaviour, life history, migration habits and population structure.
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The last confirmed sighting of a Chinese paddlefish was made in the river on 24 January 2003.
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Professor Wei and colleagues surveyed the upper Yangtze river between Xinshi, Sichuan Province and Chongqing, covering a distance of 488.5km.
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Between 2006 and 2008, the team used a number of boats to deploy 4762 setlines, 111 anchored setlines and 950 drift nets in a bid to catch the fish.
They failed to catch a single individual.
The team also used hydroacoustic equipment that beams sound through the water to create a picture of the river and anything in it.
This identified nine possible targets, of which two could be paddlefish, say the researchers. But they could not confirm these finds.
It has an unlikely nose. Or had.
Sigh.