WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.960 --> 00:00:03.919 Welcome. This is Marsha for RADIOI, and today I will 2 00:00:03.960 --> 00:00:07.839 be reading National Geographic magazine dated April twenty twenty five, 3 00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:12.119 which is donated by the publisher as a reminder. RADIOI 4 00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:14.839 is a reading service intended for people who are blind 5 00:00:15.359 --> 00:00:17.839 or have other disabilities that make it difficult to read 6 00:00:17.920 --> 00:00:21.280 printed material. Please join me now for the first article 7 00:00:21.600 --> 00:00:28.760 titled Survivors from the Dinosaur Age by Hannah Nordhaus. For 8 00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:32.200 one hundred sixty two million years, sturgeons have fended off 9 00:00:32.240 --> 00:00:35.399 everything they have ever faced, until humans push them to 10 00:00:35.439 --> 00:00:39.320 the brink of extinction. Inside the urgent flight to fight 11 00:00:39.560 --> 00:00:44.320 to protect the last of these living fossils, the river 12 00:00:44.359 --> 00:00:48.840 flows vast and soundless. It's December and southern Kazakhistan, and 13 00:00:49.240 --> 00:00:52.799 the landscape near the Sir Darya River is smudged in 14 00:00:52.880 --> 00:00:57.880 shades of brown and toupe, dormant grasses, silted floodplains, leafless trees. 15 00:00:58.479 --> 00:01:01.439 This is not the most picturesque stretch of river bank, 16 00:01:02.039 --> 00:01:07.120 strewn as it is with food wrappers, bottles, and decomposing sedan. Overhead, 17 00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:09.400 the sun is obscured by a haze of coal and 18 00:01:09.439 --> 00:01:13.400 wood smoke. But when it comes to what Berney. Cahooja 19 00:01:13.719 --> 00:01:16.760 is searching for the spot feels perfect. This is the 20 00:01:16.760 --> 00:01:21.640 habitat we need, says Cahuja, an aquatic conservation biologist with 21 00:01:21.760 --> 00:01:25.680 the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute. He's hoping to find a 22 00:01:25.719 --> 00:01:29.359 species of sturgeon, the sir Daria, that's native to these 23 00:01:29.400 --> 00:01:32.680 waters but hasn't been seen since the nineteen sixties after 24 00:01:32.719 --> 00:01:35.799 a series of Soviet dams were built throughout the river system. 25 00:01:36.959 --> 00:01:40.439 Those projects blocked access to the fish's spawning grounds, and 26 00:01:40.560 --> 00:01:44.879 fewer changed forever change the flow of the sir Dharia, 27 00:01:45.280 --> 00:01:48.480 which drains from the high peaks of Kyrgyzstan into what 28 00:01:48.560 --> 00:01:51.319 is now the remnants of the Aral Sea. If the 29 00:01:51.319 --> 00:01:56.280 sturgeon somehow still Existskohuja thinks this silty, shallow expanse of 30 00:01:56.359 --> 00:01:59.239 river is where it can be found. Some months earlier, 31 00:01:59.359 --> 00:02:05.200 khojaen contact had been contacted by the conservation organization REWILD, 32 00:02:05.719 --> 00:02:08.520 which administers a program to search for what it calls 33 00:02:08.599 --> 00:02:11.520 lost species creatures that haven't been seen for at least 34 00:02:11.560 --> 00:02:14.639 a decade and could be extinct, but there's not enough 35 00:02:14.719 --> 00:02:20.280 data to be conclusive. The officials at REWILD reached out 36 00:02:20.319 --> 00:02:22.960 to Kooja, knowing that he was one of a very 37 00:02:22.960 --> 00:02:26.080 small collection of scientists who have ever laid eyes on 38 00:02:26.159 --> 00:02:30.479 the Sir Darja star sturgeon. As a graduate student in 39 00:02:30.520 --> 00:02:34.159 the nineteen nineties, he visited museums in London, Moscow and 40 00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:40.159 Saint Petersburg and videotaped twenty seven spindled specimens bleached away 41 00:02:40.240 --> 00:02:44.159 from years of storage. They said, you're the expert, Cahuja said, 42 00:02:44.439 --> 00:02:47.759 remembering the call with rewild, and I said, well, I've 43 00:02:47.800 --> 00:02:53.039 seen them dead in a jar. The circuit Darya sturgeon 44 00:02:53.199 --> 00:02:56.240 is a distinctive looking fish, and, at a maximum length 45 00:02:56.280 --> 00:02:59.199 of roughly nine inches, is the smallest of the twenty 46 00:02:59.240 --> 00:03:02.759 six species of sturgeons. The largest is the Beluga, the 47 00:03:02.759 --> 00:03:06.080 biggest ever recorded, pulled from the Volga River in eighteen 48 00:03:06.120 --> 00:03:09.599 twenty seven, measuring more than twenty three feet and weighing 49 00:03:09.719 --> 00:03:12.960 over thirty two hundred pounds. All sturgeons have a long, 50 00:03:13.080 --> 00:03:18.479 flat snout, dangling whisker like barbeles that detect bottom dwelling prey, 51 00:03:18.879 --> 00:03:23.000 and five lines of horny bony scouts that climb vertically 52 00:03:23.080 --> 00:03:25.800 up the length of their bodies. It's hard to mistake 53 00:03:25.879 --> 00:03:29.520 this ancient fish for anything else. Cross a catfish, a shark, 54 00:03:29.840 --> 00:03:33.000 a stegosaurus, and a pruning saw, and you're not far 55 00:03:33.080 --> 00:03:37.680 from imagining a sturgeon. For one hundred sixty two million years, 56 00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:42.319 they lived through climate swings, continental shifts, volcanic eruptions, and 57 00:03:42.360 --> 00:03:46.439 a mass extinction. They survived the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. 58 00:03:46.719 --> 00:03:50.080 Everything that nature and space could throw at them, says Cahoja, 59 00:03:50.759 --> 00:03:55.439 everything except humanity. Today, they are most the most endangered 60 00:03:55.439 --> 00:03:58.719 group of fish in the world. Since nineteen seventy, global 61 00:03:58.759 --> 00:04:04.039 sturgeon populations have dropped a catastrophic ninety four percent. The 62 00:04:04.080 --> 00:04:09.120 International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN lists twenty five 63 00:04:09.120 --> 00:04:13.759 sturgeon species as vulnerable or endangered, seventeen critically so, and 64 00:04:13.879 --> 00:04:17.600 one species is extinct in the wild. Three of the 65 00:04:17.600 --> 00:04:22.360 critically endangered species, including the sir Daria, are feared extinct 66 00:04:22.399 --> 00:04:27.480 as well. Ecologically, sturgeons are on the brink. Economically, they 67 00:04:27.560 --> 00:04:30.439 are some of the most valuable animals on Earth. Much 68 00:04:30.519 --> 00:04:34.959 of the sturgeons decline can be attributed to overfishing. Caviare 69 00:04:35.079 --> 00:04:38.959 the fish profuse Obsidian eggs is salted and sold across 70 00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:41.959 the globe as an edible symbol of status and wealth. 71 00:04:42.360 --> 00:04:47.439 Some tins surpass six hundred dollars an ounce, But even 72 00:04:47.480 --> 00:04:50.480 for species like the sir Daria that aren't sought for 73 00:04:50.519 --> 00:04:55.120 their row, human made decisions and environmental changes have been devastating. 74 00:04:55.439 --> 00:04:57.959 It took only two hundred years for humans to destroy 75 00:04:58.399 --> 00:05:03.680 every riverine habitat where sturgeons live. Cahoja says. Sturgeons evolved 76 00:05:03.720 --> 00:05:06.399 over one hundred and sixty million years ago in free 77 00:05:06.399 --> 00:05:11.439 flowing rivers places without barriers. All sturgeons migrate, says Cahooja, 78 00:05:12.040 --> 00:05:16.240 there are now simply too many things in their way. Dams, reservoirs, 79 00:05:16.319 --> 00:05:21.759 dredging and irrigation diversions block migration to spawning grounds upstream, 80 00:05:22.040 --> 00:05:27.680 and strand larvae floating downstream. Runoff from agriculture can create 81 00:05:27.759 --> 00:05:33.120 toxic algal blooms, while development, logging and mining destroys spawning 82 00:05:33.160 --> 00:05:37.920 habitat and produce harmful sediments. Gohujah hopes some small number 83 00:05:37.920 --> 00:05:41.160 of sier Dharia sturgeons have survived this age of man. 84 00:05:41.759 --> 00:05:44.759 If the fish could be found, Cahoja will follow a 85 00:05:44.920 --> 00:05:48.480 now well worn playbook, capture a breeding population of males 86 00:05:48.519 --> 00:05:51.319 and females, set them up in a hatchery, and raise 87 00:05:51.399 --> 00:05:54.839 them for reintroduction into the wild. Where there are dams 88 00:05:54.879 --> 00:05:58.959 blocking spawning roots, there are now hatchery and transport programs. 89 00:05:59.600 --> 00:06:03.639 Where the overfishing, there are now laws and institutions banning 90 00:06:03.720 --> 00:06:08.000 or limiting unsustainable harvest. Even the caviat industry is now 91 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:11.680 playing a role in bringing sturgeons back back from the brink. 92 00:06:12.160 --> 00:06:15.120 Before arriving at the river, Khusha had stopped at a 93 00:06:15.199 --> 00:06:20.000 roadside fishmonger's stand and passed around printed photo of those 94 00:06:20.319 --> 00:06:24.519 museum specimens. Trucks groaned past on the highway as a 95 00:06:24.519 --> 00:06:27.519 fisherman studied the picture and then confirmed that he had 96 00:06:27.560 --> 00:06:30.839 pulled something similar out of the water a few years back, 97 00:06:31.120 --> 00:06:34.480 which made Khusha even more excited to get into the river. 98 00:06:35.079 --> 00:06:38.600 Making their way toward the water, Khushaan as colleague Dave 99 00:06:38.720 --> 00:06:42.199 Neelie Kirrie a custom sown net they will use to 100 00:06:42.279 --> 00:06:47.480 sweep the river. Three Kazakh fisheries officials have driven down 101 00:06:47.519 --> 00:06:49.959 from the Aral Sea in a big Soviet era truck 102 00:06:50.319 --> 00:06:53.680 to supervise the efforts to find the lost fish. One 103 00:06:53.720 --> 00:06:58.920 of them, tinspik barak Baya, leans against the old vehicle, 104 00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:02.160 watching as Kahusha and Neely wade into the river. We 105 00:07:02.240 --> 00:07:05.040 have a chance, he says. With this chance very small, 106 00:07:05.360 --> 00:07:09.199 we can hope. It's April and Wisconsins Wolf River is 107 00:07:09.240 --> 00:07:12.720 teeming with sturgeons. The fish prowl the rocks near the banks, 108 00:07:13.040 --> 00:07:16.560 their fins breaching the water in the frothing spillway of 109 00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:20.399 Shawano Dam, which lies between a paper mill on one 110 00:07:20.439 --> 00:07:24.199 side of the river and the town of Shauano's Sturgeon Park, 111 00:07:24.600 --> 00:07:27.800 a tiered greenway at the river's edge. Since the barrier's 112 00:07:27.839 --> 00:07:31.439 construction in eighteen ninety two, this is marked the farthest 113 00:07:31.480 --> 00:07:34.560 point up the river where the sturgeons can swim. A 114 00:07:34.639 --> 00:07:37.279 crowd is beginning to gather along the banks to watch 115 00:07:37.560 --> 00:07:41.240 this annual rite of spring, in which thousands of sturgeons 116 00:07:41.240 --> 00:07:45.000 swim from Lake Wobegon one hundred twenty five miles downstream 117 00:07:45.079 --> 00:07:47.680 to spawn. These fish are a small number of the 118 00:07:47.759 --> 00:07:54.000 roughly forty thousand adult sturgeons in the Lake wobe Winnebago system. 119 00:07:54.079 --> 00:07:57.639 Wisconsin statewide lake sturgeon population is one of the healthiest 120 00:07:57.639 --> 00:08:00.959 on the planet. Theirs is a comeback story that sturgeon 121 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:05.279 advocates are seeking to emulate around the world. Sturgeons were 122 00:08:05.279 --> 00:08:08.480 once so abundant in North American rivers that, according to 123 00:08:08.600 --> 00:08:11.519 indigenous lore, you could walk across the river on the 124 00:08:11.519 --> 00:08:15.959 fish's backs. Lake sturgeons, the fish that are spawning below 125 00:08:16.279 --> 00:08:20.439 Shawano Dam and top out around seven feet, once ranged 126 00:08:20.720 --> 00:08:23.639 from the Great Lakes and Hudson Bay south to the 127 00:08:23.720 --> 00:08:27.079 Mississippi Watershed, but by the nineteen seventies they had been 128 00:08:27.120 --> 00:08:32.360 largely wiped out of many of their native rivers. In Wisconsin, 129 00:08:32.440 --> 00:08:37.799 sturgeon populations had plunged years earlier, but foresighted management averted disaster. 130 00:08:38.440 --> 00:08:41.159 In nineteen fifteen, the state banned all fishing for lake 131 00:08:41.200 --> 00:08:45.159 sturgeons for a time, then carefully tinkeered with catch and 132 00:08:45.240 --> 00:08:48.960 size requirements that are still in place. Those catch limits 133 00:08:48.960 --> 00:08:53.600 are set by Margaret Statig, the states so called Sturgeon General, 134 00:08:54.720 --> 00:08:57.759 a moniker that tends to stick to all sturgeon bosses. 135 00:08:58.200 --> 00:09:01.360 State ag is a fisheries biologist with the Wisconsin Department 136 00:09:01.360 --> 00:09:04.600 of Natural Resources charged with overseeing the health of the 137 00:09:04.679 --> 00:09:08.759 Lake Winnebago population. She also collaborates with the federal government 138 00:09:08.840 --> 00:09:11.919 on a breeding program meant to restore lakes sturgeon numbers 139 00:09:12.200 --> 00:09:15.759 across their former range. This is her first spawning season 140 00:09:16.039 --> 00:09:20.120 her predecessor pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of theft 141 00:09:20.120 --> 00:09:23.360 of caviare and as she stands along the Wolf River 142 00:09:23.679 --> 00:09:26.600 watching the sturgeons prepare to spawn, she points to a 143 00:09:26.639 --> 00:09:30.279 female moving slowly along the rocks, bloated with eggs. She 144 00:09:30.320 --> 00:09:33.679 looks like a goodyear blimp, Estatic says, noting that the 145 00:09:33.720 --> 00:09:38.159 males are thinner and sleeker, more like torpedoes. They're more active, too, 146 00:09:38.320 --> 00:09:40.519 jumping out of the water from time to time, their 147 00:09:40.559 --> 00:09:45.279 bodies vibrating like plucked guitar strings. When a female sturgeon 148 00:09:45.360 --> 00:09:48.039 is ready to spawn, a group of males surrounds her, 149 00:09:48.399 --> 00:09:51.840 thumping her abdomen with their tails so vigorously that an 150 00:09:51.919 --> 00:09:54.720 onloquor perched on the river bank can feel the rocks 151 00:09:54.720 --> 00:09:58.200 shake until she extrudes her eggs. Thousands at a time. 152 00:09:58.840 --> 00:10:02.080 The eggs and milt fish sperm meet and saddle on 153 00:10:02.159 --> 00:10:04.320 the rocks or gravel at the bottom of the river, 154 00:10:04.759 --> 00:10:08.039 hatching as larvae a week later to ride the spring 155 00:10:08.120 --> 00:10:11.320 runoff back down the river. They vibrate when they spawn, 156 00:10:11.440 --> 00:10:15.120 Static says, referring to what the locals call sturgeon thunder. 157 00:10:15.960 --> 00:10:18.559 Once the thunder begins, Static's team, which is here to 158 00:10:18.600 --> 00:10:22.720 count and characterize the fish, also gets biddy busy netting 159 00:10:22.919 --> 00:10:25.919 the sturgeons and laying them on a tarp. One team 160 00:10:25.960 --> 00:10:29.200 member holds a fish's head, another the tail, while a 161 00:10:29.320 --> 00:10:33.240 third scans for telemetric tags that indicate whether the fish 162 00:10:33.480 --> 00:10:36.759 has been caught before. Static will set the next year's 163 00:10:36.799 --> 00:10:41.200 fishing harvest caps using an algorithm based on numbers of 164 00:10:41.240 --> 00:10:45.080 tagged and untagged fish. Thanks to these quotas, the Wolf 165 00:10:45.279 --> 00:10:48.399 River sturgeons are now healthy enough to sustain their own numbers. 166 00:10:49.159 --> 00:10:52.039 Federal officials hope to build on that success by breeding 167 00:10:52.080 --> 00:10:56.320 Wolf River sturgeons to restock rivers in other states. After 168 00:10:56.320 --> 00:10:59.679 each fish is measured, sexed, and tagged, it is handed 169 00:10:59.679 --> 00:11:02.360 off to group from the U. S Fish and Wildlife Service, 170 00:11:02.799 --> 00:11:06.039 which collects eggs and milt from the female and male sturgeons, 171 00:11:06.399 --> 00:11:09.840 mixes them together with a turkey feather it's soft enough 172 00:11:10.080 --> 00:11:13.240 to not damage the eggs as they are stirred, then 173 00:11:13.399 --> 00:11:17.240 transports the fertilized eggs back to the Warm Springs National 174 00:11:17.279 --> 00:11:21.039 Fish Hatchery and Georgia About a month later. Grow out 175 00:11:21.159 --> 00:11:25.799 facilities like the Tennessee Aquarium where Cahoja works pick up 176 00:11:25.840 --> 00:11:28.840 the fish and raise them in tanks, feeding them a 177 00:11:28.919 --> 00:11:32.559 diet of brine, shrimp and blood worms. After the fish 178 00:11:32.559 --> 00:11:35.200 have grown six inches long, they are released into rivers 179 00:11:35.360 --> 00:11:39.440 where sturgeons were long ago wiped out by overfishing, dredging, pollution, 180 00:11:39.679 --> 00:11:43.440 and dams. Since two thousand, the aquarium and its partners 181 00:11:43.440 --> 00:11:47.120 have reintroduced more than three hundred thousand lake sturgeons into 182 00:11:47.120 --> 00:11:50.200 the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, hoping they will thrive in 183 00:11:50.279 --> 00:11:53.799 the stretches between dams. The first females are just now 184 00:11:54.080 --> 00:11:58.399 reaching reproductive age somewhere north of twenty years in lake sturgeons, 185 00:11:58.799 --> 00:12:01.759 though Cahooja and his team have yet to see evidence 186 00:12:02.039 --> 00:12:06.080 that the reintroduced fish have successfully spawned and the larvae 187 00:12:06.279 --> 00:12:09.960 have survived the perilous float through the river systems many 188 00:12:10.120 --> 00:12:15.559 stagnant reservoirs to transform into juvenile fish, but restocked lakes 189 00:12:15.559 --> 00:12:19.519 sturgeons have reproduced in river systems with longer free flowing 190 00:12:19.519 --> 00:12:23.399 stretches in the Kusa River basin in Georgia, and the 191 00:12:23.440 --> 00:12:28.559 researchers continue to hope when you start a sturgeon regeneration program, 192 00:12:28.639 --> 00:12:31.440 you are in it for a century, says Khuja who 193 00:12:31.519 --> 00:12:35.120 joined the team in Wisconsin to collect thin cliffs to 194 00:12:35.519 --> 00:12:40.159 chart hatchery genetics. It's a long term investment. Before Statics 195 00:12:40.200 --> 00:12:43.960 team finishes its work, members count out seventy three sturgeons 196 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:50.120 to deliver to the Memomini tribe, whose reservation lies above 197 00:12:50.320 --> 00:12:55.480 Shiuano Dam. For thousands of years, the Mini people gathered 198 00:12:55.519 --> 00:12:58.159 each spring for a feast and ceremony. We would wait 199 00:12:58.200 --> 00:13:00.679 for the sturgeon to come after the long which are months, 200 00:13:00.960 --> 00:13:05.960 says David Grignon, the tribe's historic preservation officer. When the 201 00:13:06.039 --> 00:13:08.279 dam was built more than one hundred thirty years ago, 202 00:13:08.559 --> 00:13:12.399 the sturgeon migration was blocked and the ceremony ceased. A 203 00:13:12.480 --> 00:13:16.440 century later, thanks to the state's recovery efforts, Wisconsin officials, 204 00:13:16.440 --> 00:13:20.000 in collaboration with the tribe, began hauling the fish around 205 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:22.879 the dams. They transport them up in big trucks and 206 00:13:22.919 --> 00:13:27.519 tanks each spring, says Grignon, and the tribe revised its 207 00:13:27.559 --> 00:13:30.759 ceremony that features dancers who mimic the movement of the 208 00:13:30.799 --> 00:13:34.679 sturgeons up the river. Tribal officials are also working to 209 00:13:34.720 --> 00:13:37.759 install a passage in one dam to restore the natural 210 00:13:37.799 --> 00:13:41.679 migration of sturgeons to the reservation, but for now, sturgeon 211 00:13:41.759 --> 00:13:45.519 generals like statig must serve as midwives too, trucking the 212 00:13:45.559 --> 00:13:50.840 fish across unbreachable human boundaries. Ironically, the very industry that 213 00:13:51.000 --> 00:13:54.200 caused the decline of some many sturgeon species is now 214 00:13:54.240 --> 00:13:57.240 playing a key role in their comeback and his family's 215 00:13:57.279 --> 00:14:02.360 sturgeon farm outside of Milan, Italy, Gio Giovannini stands on 216 00:14:02.440 --> 00:14:05.679 a metal grill above the water and points beneath his 217 00:14:05.759 --> 00:14:09.679 feet to a fish named Cavallo. Today, most of the 218 00:14:09.720 --> 00:14:13.679 world's caviar is produced in aquaculture facilities like this one, 219 00:14:13.919 --> 00:14:16.919 farms that sturgeon advocates hope can play a part in 220 00:14:17.000 --> 00:14:23.559 saving many European caviar species. The Gioini family raises three 221 00:14:23.639 --> 00:14:29.279 hundred thousand Adriatic Russians, stirlet and stellate sturgeons to sell 222 00:14:29.320 --> 00:14:32.039 on the global market. Most of those fish will be 223 00:14:32.039 --> 00:14:36.840 sold for caviar and meat, not Cavallo. Everyone had assumed Cavallo, 224 00:14:36.879 --> 00:14:39.679 which was sleek and jumped like a stallion, was a male, 225 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:43.360 hence the masculine name. But in twenty twenty, after the 226 00:14:43.399 --> 00:14:46.639 family moved Cavallo from a site fed by spring water, 227 00:14:46.720 --> 00:14:49.919 to the farm's river fed tanks. Cavallo produced eggs for 228 00:14:49.960 --> 00:14:53.200 the first time she was around fifty years old. Now 229 00:14:53.240 --> 00:14:55.799 she's contributing those eggs to the future of the species. 230 00:14:56.320 --> 00:14:59.120 We give this lady sturgeon river water, and after three 231 00:14:59.240 --> 00:15:04.399 four years, miracles happened Giovanni. He says, it is also 232 00:15:04.440 --> 00:15:07.480 something of a miracle that Cavallo and the other Adriatic 233 00:15:07.519 --> 00:15:12.960 sturgeons on the farm exist at all. Sergio's father, Jacinto, 234 00:15:13.679 --> 00:15:17.759 purchased Cavallo and around sixty other Adriatic sturgeons from fishermen 235 00:15:17.879 --> 00:15:20.639 on the Po River and its tributaries in the mid 236 00:15:20.720 --> 00:15:24.360 nineteen seventies, before Sergo was born. They were among the 237 00:15:24.399 --> 00:15:28.879 last wild Adriatic sturgeons captured alive. The species was designated 238 00:15:28.960 --> 00:15:33.679 by the IUCN as critically endangered and possibly extinct in 239 00:15:33.720 --> 00:15:39.200 the wild in twenty ten. Though Giuscinto had experienced breeding 240 00:15:39.240 --> 00:15:41.480 trout and pike, he had no idea how to breed 241 00:15:41.519 --> 00:15:45.039 sturgeons in captivity. He had heard the Soviets had been 242 00:15:45.080 --> 00:15:51.320 successfully fertilizing Capcian Caspian sturgeon species since the eighteen sixties. 243 00:15:51.799 --> 00:15:54.799 In the nineteen forties, their scientists figure out how do 244 00:15:55.000 --> 00:16:00.120 introduce ovulation with injections of pituitary home warns, and in 245 00:16:00.200 --> 00:16:06.720 nineteen sixty nine they retrieved the eggs using laparoctomies invasive 246 00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:11.200 surgeries to access the gametes, much like human caesarean sections. 247 00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:16.720 When Giuccinto sought the Soviets help for Adriatic sturgeons in 248 00:16:16.759 --> 00:16:20.399 nineteen seventy eight, they refused. Instead, he learned through trial 249 00:16:20.440 --> 00:16:23.480 and error with the assistance of French and Italian scientists. 250 00:16:24.080 --> 00:16:27.600 In nineteen eighty eight, around the time wild sturgeon fishing 251 00:16:27.679 --> 00:16:31.159 was largely banned, he finally succeeded using a non invasive 252 00:16:31.519 --> 00:16:35.879 stripping method, applying gentle pressure to a ripe female's abdomen 253 00:16:35.960 --> 00:16:40.919 to squeeze the eggs out of the fish, no incisions required. 254 00:16:41.519 --> 00:16:45.720 Soon after, he distributed his first adriatic fingerlings to conservation 255 00:16:45.879 --> 00:16:49.840 organizations for restocking, and then in the nineteen nineties he 256 00:16:49.919 --> 00:16:53.639 began raising Adriatic and other species for caviare production as well. 257 00:16:54.320 --> 00:16:57.120 It's thought every Adriatic sturgeon in the world today is 258 00:16:57.159 --> 00:17:01.799 descended from the breeding stock Chiacinto collected in the seventies. 259 00:17:02.120 --> 00:17:06.559 Looking back, says Baadas Strival, writer the World Wide fund 260 00:17:06.599 --> 00:17:11.079 for Nature's Sturgeon initiative lead. You can say the Giovannines 261 00:17:11.319 --> 00:17:16.319 have probably saved the Adriatic sturgeon. Experts hope these sorts 262 00:17:16.319 --> 00:17:19.599 of efforts can protect other species, such as the Russian 263 00:17:19.640 --> 00:17:24.160 and sterlet sturgeons and Belugas, the grandest, most coveted of 264 00:17:24.200 --> 00:17:28.759 them all. Belugas came under crushing population pressure when sturgeon 265 00:17:28.839 --> 00:17:31.720 numbers crashed in the twentieth century as a result of 266 00:17:31.720 --> 00:17:35.599 overfishing and dam construction. A black market free for all 267 00:17:35.680 --> 00:17:39.599 then flourished with egg bearing beluga females estimated to have 268 00:17:39.640 --> 00:17:43.440 fetched as much as three million dollars each. Belugas could 269 00:17:43.519 --> 00:17:46.839 once be found and fished in northern Italy. Now they 270 00:17:46.880 --> 00:17:49.839 are gone from Italian rivers and found only in very 271 00:17:49.839 --> 00:17:53.920 small numbers in the Caspian and Black seas and on farms. 272 00:17:55.359 --> 00:17:59.799 While the illegal caviar trade persists, expanding aquaculture makes it less. 273 00:18:00.839 --> 00:18:03.279 When I kill fish with my right hand, with my left, 274 00:18:03.319 --> 00:18:07.559 I can also be involved with conservation, says Sergio Giovannini's 275 00:18:07.599 --> 00:18:11.119 brother John, who along with Sergio, continues to provide breeding 276 00:18:11.160 --> 00:18:17.400 stock for ongoing Adriatic sturgeon reintroduction efforts. From the Giavigninis, 277 00:18:17.480 --> 00:18:23.799 the farmed sturgeons travel by truck to Cavier Processor Agrohitica 278 00:18:24.119 --> 00:18:30.240 Lombardo in the nearby industrial town of Calvisando, Augretique Death. 279 00:18:30.559 --> 00:18:35.079 Lombardo processes almost processes almost thirty one tons of caviare 280 00:18:35.160 --> 00:18:39.960 each year. Unlike the Giuviannini's breeding program, the caviar harvest 281 00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:43.599 still requires killing the fish. The sturgeons are unloaded into 282 00:18:43.599 --> 00:18:47.279 a V shaped slaughtering trough, then move to processing rooms 283 00:18:47.480 --> 00:18:51.200 where employees clad in surgical gloves and gowns, remove the 284 00:18:51.240 --> 00:18:55.119 ovaries and pull out hundreds of thousands of glistening dark eggs, 285 00:18:55.400 --> 00:18:57.920 accounting for up to twenty five percent of a fish's 286 00:18:58.200 --> 00:19:03.759 total weight. Then rinse, taste, grade whegh salt, hack, press, 287 00:19:03.799 --> 00:19:07.720 and finely can and label them for sale. During processing, 288 00:19:07.839 --> 00:19:12.559 tiny black rows scatter across the tables, wash buckets, and floor. 289 00:19:13.440 --> 00:19:16.079 When you buy caviar, you don't buy the eggs of sturgeon. 290 00:19:16.160 --> 00:19:20.480 You buy a perception, says Paolo Bronzi, president of the 291 00:19:20.519 --> 00:19:25.519 World Sturgeon Conservation Society. A luxury product, something special, just 292 00:19:25.599 --> 00:19:29.960 for rich people. Champagne caviar. A nice girl in the 293 00:19:29.960 --> 00:19:32.799 grating room. One of the workers offers me a taste 294 00:19:32.880 --> 00:19:38.160 of ost cetra caviar from the critically endangered Russian sturgeon. 295 00:19:38.319 --> 00:19:43.799 It's true, it tastes like abundance birth salt sea life. 296 00:19:44.039 --> 00:19:47.160 In Kazakhstan on the banks of the Sir Dharya, the 297 00:19:47.240 --> 00:19:51.559 Kazakh Fisheries officials smoke cigarettes and weight sympathetic as kut 298 00:19:52.200 --> 00:19:55.880 Cahouja's struggles to keep his footing on the silty river bottom. 299 00:19:56.400 --> 00:19:59.279 He and Neelie drag a net beneath the surface. On 300 00:19:59.359 --> 00:20:03.000 their first pass, they pull up countless branches and cockleburrs, 301 00:20:03.359 --> 00:20:06.000 along with a few minnows. At the river bank, they 302 00:20:06.039 --> 00:20:10.480 place each species they capture into a plexiglass container to 303 00:20:10.559 --> 00:20:13.920 measure and photograph, then untangle the net and wade back 304 00:20:13.960 --> 00:20:17.200 into the current, hoping that the next pass will dredge 305 00:20:17.279 --> 00:20:20.079 up a sturgeon no scientist has seen for more than 306 00:20:20.079 --> 00:20:24.519 fifty years and pave a path towards its recovery. Work 307 00:20:24.599 --> 00:20:27.359 like this is making an impact. Thanks to scientists and 308 00:20:27.400 --> 00:20:32.839 aquaculture experts like Cahoosia Static and the Giuvannines, sturgeon populations 309 00:20:32.839 --> 00:20:37.279 have begun to recover. In eastern North America. Populations of Atlantic, 310 00:20:37.319 --> 00:20:40.519 Gulf and Lake sturgeons have all mounted comebacks from the 311 00:20:40.559 --> 00:20:44.519 lows of the past century. Reintroduced hatchery fish like those 312 00:20:44.519 --> 00:20:48.680 from Wisconsin's Wolf River have returned to their native watersheds 313 00:20:48.759 --> 00:20:52.440 everywhere from New York to Minnesota, to Germany to China, 314 00:20:52.799 --> 00:20:54.960 and in some places are beginning to reproduce for the 315 00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:58.720 first time in decades. By twenty twenty one, after more 316 00:20:58.759 --> 00:21:03.279 than thirty years of restocking, scientists had discovered one beached 317 00:21:03.279 --> 00:21:08.039 egg bearing female and had detected juveniles in three Italian rivers, 318 00:21:08.079 --> 00:21:11.559 suggesting the restocked fish may have begun reproducing again in 319 00:21:11.599 --> 00:21:16.000 the wild. In April twenty twenty four, captive bread Yanksi 320 00:21:16.400 --> 00:21:19.599 sturgeons spawned in their native habitat for the first time, 321 00:21:19.920 --> 00:21:23.359 almost two years after a panel of international experts had 322 00:21:23.359 --> 00:21:27.519 declared the fish extinct in the wild. The world's sturgeon 323 00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:32.279 generals haven't given up on the most critically endangered species either. 324 00:21:32.799 --> 00:21:36.599 Khoja helped identify the last Alabama sturgeon netted in the 325 00:21:36.640 --> 00:21:40.200 wild in two thousand and seven. Biologists continued to comb 326 00:21:40.200 --> 00:21:43.640 the Alabama River for its namesake sturgeon and have found 327 00:21:43.640 --> 00:21:47.200 the fish's DNA in the waters there sad Lea Kuhuja 328 00:21:47.200 --> 00:21:51.480 won't find a seer Darya sturgeon on this expedition to Kazakhstan, 329 00:21:51.960 --> 00:21:54.119 but he plans to return the spring to look up 330 00:21:54.240 --> 00:21:58.039 river in Uzbekistan, where there are more shallow waters and 331 00:21:58.119 --> 00:22:01.480 braided channels that are easier to see. Ample He believes 332 00:22:01.559 --> 00:22:04.799 they are there and that the next expedition may be 333 00:22:04.880 --> 00:22:09.519 the one that resurfaces that spindled prehistoric long sought fish. 334 00:22:09.920 --> 00:22:13.039 I'll recognize it the minute it breaks water, Cahucia says, 335 00:22:13.359 --> 00:22:17.839 and my head will spin on my neck. Ancient adaptations 336 00:22:18.160 --> 00:22:21.480 sturgeons have survived for millions of years. What accounts for 337 00:22:21.559 --> 00:22:26.400 their staying power and sudden steep decline dwindling numbers. Once 338 00:22:26.440 --> 00:22:29.599 prevalent in fresh and salt water habitats across North America 339 00:22:29.599 --> 00:22:34.200 and Eurasia, sturgeon populations have dropped ninety four percent globally 340 00:22:34.240 --> 00:22:38.000 since nineteen seventy, with one species now extinct in the wild. 341 00:22:39.039 --> 00:22:43.240 Breeding blocked all sturgeon species, even those that spend most 342 00:22:43.279 --> 00:22:45.839 of their lives in salt water, migrate to spawn in 343 00:22:45.880 --> 00:22:49.480 fresh water. Rivers Dams obstruct the upstream journey of the 344 00:22:49.559 --> 00:22:56.160 adults and the downstream drifting of developing hatchlings. Jurassic bodies. Physically, 345 00:22:56.240 --> 00:22:59.240 sturgeons haven't changed much for more than a hundred million years. 346 00:22:59.640 --> 00:23:02.839 When the fish were first described by modern science, researchers 347 00:23:02.880 --> 00:23:07.559 assumed they were sharks because of their cartilaginous skeleton and 348 00:23:07.880 --> 00:23:14.640 tail shape. Next, unraveling the mysteries of the Condo Congo. 349 00:23:15.960 --> 00:23:18.880 For decades, one of the world's biggest rainforests was largely 350 00:23:18.880 --> 00:23:22.480 invisible to climate science. Now a new band of researchers 351 00:23:22.559 --> 00:23:26.480 raised in Central Africa is changing that, and what they're 352 00:23:26.559 --> 00:23:31.359 discovering there is revolutionizing our understanding of how to protect 353 00:23:31.519 --> 00:23:38.599 the planet. This article by Meilani Goobi. Within the dense 354 00:23:38.640 --> 00:23:42.319 canopy of the Congo Basin rainforest, the afternoon light began 355 00:23:42.359 --> 00:23:45.640 to fade, glinting off a soaring metal tower that rose 356 00:23:45.680 --> 00:23:49.000 steeply out of the jungle. Measuring one hundred eighty feet tall, 357 00:23:49.039 --> 00:23:53.680 the narrow steel structure resembled a massive cellular network antennae, 358 00:23:54.079 --> 00:23:56.559 although it was outfitted with a collection of far more 359 00:23:56.599 --> 00:24:00.839 critical scientific sensors. The wind had picked up, causing the 360 00:24:00.839 --> 00:24:04.440 spire to sway and whine with each strong gust, But 361 00:24:04.640 --> 00:24:09.720 a biologist named fabres Kimbasa appeared undaunted after strapping into 362 00:24:09.759 --> 00:24:12.319 a safety harness. He grabbed hold of a thin metal 363 00:24:12.400 --> 00:24:15.960 ladder and clamored briskly upward, leaving me to catch up 364 00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:19.279 as he raced toward a small platform at the very top. 365 00:24:19.759 --> 00:24:24.119 This particular structure is what's known as an eddy covariance 366 00:24:24.240 --> 00:24:27.960 flux tower. When it came online in October twenty twenty, 367 00:24:28.200 --> 00:24:30.240 it became the first effort to be located in the 368 00:24:30.279 --> 00:24:35.079 Congo Basin. For climate researchers who track greenhouse gas exchanges 369 00:24:35.319 --> 00:24:39.079 between the forest and the atmosphere. Such spires essentially act 370 00:24:39.160 --> 00:24:43.079 like enormous stethoscopes. They're capable of tracking how much carbon 371 00:24:43.079 --> 00:24:46.240 dioxide is released and taken up by the forest to 372 00:24:46.279 --> 00:24:50.519 help calculate the world's emissions being sequestered back into the earth, 373 00:24:50.799 --> 00:24:55.359 among many other factors, and so every day Cambsa makes 374 00:24:55.400 --> 00:24:58.839 the nerve racking climb to check the equipment's readings, monitoring 375 00:24:58.839 --> 00:25:02.440 with precision. Now other forest breathes around him. When you 376 00:25:02.480 --> 00:25:04.440 look at the data, you get the sense that you 377 00:25:04.519 --> 00:25:07.240 now have a special connection with the forest, he says, 378 00:25:07.599 --> 00:25:10.960 you can see things others don't. Today, after hours of 379 00:25:11.039 --> 00:25:15.720 baking beneath the hot equatorial sun, the rainforest seems to 380 00:25:15.759 --> 00:25:19.839 be exhaling, its canopy engulfed in clouds of mist. The 381 00:25:19.880 --> 00:25:23.279 recorded data showed a more specific trend over the past 382 00:25:23.319 --> 00:25:26.880 twenty four hours. Carbon dioxide levels in the area dropped 383 00:25:26.960 --> 00:25:30.640 substantially during the day as trees and other plants converted 384 00:25:30.880 --> 00:25:35.240 the greenhouse gas to oxygen during the photosynthesis, only to 385 00:25:35.319 --> 00:25:38.759 creep back up after sunset. This kind of work has 386 00:25:38.799 --> 00:25:42.680 never been more vital. Tropical forests were once responsible for 387 00:25:42.799 --> 00:25:47.279 sequestrian roughly half of Earth's carbon stored on land, but 388 00:25:47.480 --> 00:25:50.440 their overall efficacy is declining since a peak in the 389 00:25:50.519 --> 00:25:54.680 nineteen nineties. The Congo Basin encompasses the world's second largest 390 00:25:54.759 --> 00:25:59.519 rainforest beyond behind the Amazon, spanning about five hundred million 391 00:25:59.519 --> 00:26:02.680 acres of cross central Africa. Yet, while more than a 392 00:26:02.759 --> 00:26:06.319 thousand flux towers have been collecting data about gas exchange 393 00:26:06.359 --> 00:26:09.880 rates around the globe for decades, this region has been 394 00:26:09.920 --> 00:26:14.000 a blank spot until twenty twenty. Several years ago, an 395 00:26:14.079 --> 00:26:18.240 international consortium of researchers revealed that, based on a sample 396 00:26:18.279 --> 00:26:22.200 of tropical old growth forest plots across the Congo Basin, 397 00:26:22.599 --> 00:26:25.519 the rainforest appears to be storing carbon at a steadier 398 00:26:25.599 --> 00:26:29.960 rate than the Amazon, where the absorption rate has rapidly diminished. 399 00:26:30.440 --> 00:26:33.640 But the researchers also noted that since twenty ten, the 400 00:26:33.680 --> 00:26:37.160 African rainforest has seemed to be following a downward path 401 00:26:37.440 --> 00:26:41.079