772-pound Chinese sturgeon caught in Yangtze River

A giant Chinese sturgeon, measuring up to 3.3 meters long and weighing up to 772 pounds, was accidentally caught by a fisherman on Nov. 15 in the Yangtze River in China. [Photo/youth.cn]

A giant Chinese sturgeon, measuring up to 3.3 meters long and weighing up to 772 pounds, was accidentally caught by a fisherman on Nov 15 in the Yangtze River in China, youth.cn reported.

The "big fish" was pregnant and was sent to a fisheries research center in central China's Wuhan City due to its injuries.

It will be released back into the wild after recovering from injuries, according to the report.

The Chinese sturgeon has been classed as "critically endangered" on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's red list of threatened species. In China, it is strictly protected, named a "national treasure" much like its mammalian counterpart, the giant panda. Today, only about 100 sturgeons remain in the wild.