Chinese fisherman Ma Hongjun and two of his friends, having recently thrown a net into the river, did not even suspect who would be caught in it. And caught in their net is a huge kaluga fish from the sturgeon family, weighing 513 kg and 3 meters 59 cm long.
It is the heaviest fish of the sturgeon family caught in the Chinese part of the Amur over the past 10 years.
Researchers assume that this fish is at least 100 years old, if not all 200. The fish was caught on May 19 in the Amur River in Tongjiang County, which borders the Russian border. According to the 53-year-old fisherman, the fish is female and its belly is chock-full of caviar.
The fish was so heavy that it took several people to pull it out of the water and move it.
The fisherman sold such a valuable catch to the fishery center of Fuyuan City for an amount equal to his double annual earnings. Judging by the photo, the precious kaluga was placed in a separate pool and now they are probably waiting for caviar to mature inside it, which will then be carefully removed and new kaluga will be removed from it.
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The fisherman sold such a valuable catch to the fishery center of Fuyuan City for an amount equal to his double annual earnings. Judging by the photo, the precious kaluga was placed in a separate pool and now they are probably waiting for caviar to mature inside it, which will then be carefully removed and new kaluga will be removed from it.
Last year, the Chinese caught a sturgeon fish weighing 450 kg, which they also sold to a fishery center for a round sum.
Kaluga fish, like other valuable sturgeon fish, is in the Red Book of Russia and the International Red Book. Fishing in Russian waters has been banned since 1958, commercial fishing for Kaluga and other sturgeon in Chinese waters is legalized (licensed by the state).
Kaluga can reach a weight of a ton and a length of over 5 meters (it is possible that 6-meter specimens existed in the past), but such giants have not been seen for many decades.