Pollution and over-fishing in China's longest river, the Yangtze, have led to a dramatic depletion of aquatic life in the nation's mother river.

There are now about 1100 aquatic species in the river, at least 100 fewer than in the 1990s.

Twenty fish species out of a total of 370 are on the endangered list.

Although the Chinese paddlefish, white-flag dolphin, Chinese alligator, mullet and black finless porpoise can still survive and breed in the Yangtze River, their numbers keep dropping.

The white-flag dolphin is on the verge of extinction.

"Common species" such as carp are also gasping for survival.

The annual reproduction of fry of black carp, grass carp, silver carp and variegated carp has dropped from 30 billion in the 1990s to the current 400 million.

Overfishing is the major cause of the sharp decline.

Over 250,000 people earn their livelihood from fishing the river, which far exceeds capacity.

The deteriorating environment of the Yangtze River is also having a drastic effect on the number of aquatic species.

Cities along the river discharge at least 14.2 billion tons of polluted water every year, 42 percent of China's total.

In 2003 the Chinese government instituted a fishing season system on the Yangtze River and released 500 million fish fry. However, aquatic life has not recovered and the situation remains critical.

Source:佚名