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This is NEWS Plus Special English.
Researchers have set free 3,000 artificially-bred Chinese sturgeons into the Yangtze River, in an effort to save the species from extinction. The Chinese sturgeon is a rare aquatic species that has lived through the dinosaur age.
This has been the 57th in a row by the Chinese Sturgeons Research Institute to release artificially-bred sturgeon. Advanced methods have also been adopted to help scientists track their whereabouts.
The Chinese sturgeon is a critically endangered species native to China. It is strictly protected by the Chinese government, and was named a "national treasure", much like its mammalian counterpart, the giant panda.
The Chinese sturgeon has a habit of upstream migration; it dwells along the coasts of China's eastern areas and migrates back up rivers for propagation. It has the longest migration route of any sturgeon in the world, with a single trip measuring more than 3,200 kilometers up the Yangtze River.
In the 1970s, an estimated 2,000 Chinese sturgeon spawned in the Yangtze River every year. However, due to water projects, busy traffic and pollution, the number of wild sturgeons has fallen from around 1,000 in 1982 to 50 now.
This is NEWS Plus Special English.
Unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, are playing an increasingly important role in China's battle against pollution.
During the latest air pollution inspections in Beijing and surrounding areas, law enforcement officials of the Ministry of Environmental Protection deployed UAVs to check key places.
The vehicles were responsible for the discovery of at least one environmental violator in Hebei's Handan city, where the air quality ranks among the worst in China. Two outdated pieces of machinery were found hidden in an iron and steel company factory. Government inspectors came to the site immediately to deal with the issue.
Five other enterprises were also found violating pollution control guidelines during the inspections.
With strong determination to fight pollution, UAVs have been frequently used to monitor pollution discharge and the operation of desulfurization facilities of companies related to steel, coking and electricity industries.
The UAVs used for environmental protection collect information with installed remote sensors, including digital cameras in high resolution, infrared and laser scanners and magnetometer. Some are even installed with infrared thermal imager which can show the operation of facilities at night.
