On the morning of February 12, local fisherman Dong Jinlin found a strange fish in his net in Ningbo City's Xiangshan Harbor in east China's Zhejiang Province.

The fish was about 80 centimeters long, weighed 1.5 kilograms and had more than 10 prominent bony plates on its back and abdomen. 

Thinking it must be a nationally protected animal, Dong called the local fishery department for confirmation.

"I've been fishing for over 40 years and had never caught a fish like this. I called the local fishery department right away," he said. 

The fish was found at around 1 p.m. The local fishery department staff arrived an hour later and identified it as a Chinese sturgeon.

Listed as "critically endangered" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the fish is a first-class nationally protected animal in China and is known as a "national treasure in water." 

Uninjured and relatively healthy and estimated to be about one to two years old, the fish was released back into the sea.

(Cover image via screenshot.)

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