Zhou Liang, head of the Yibin Institute of Rare Aquatic Animals, inspects a captive-bred Yangtze sturgeon. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

After more than three decades of dedication, Zhou Liang finally sees hope on the horizon for fulfilling his and his late father's lifelong dream of restoring the wild population of the Yangtze sturgeon.

Zhou, 53, is head of the Yibin Institute of Rare Aquatic Animals, the first private organization for the protection and study of rare fish in the country's longest waterway, the Yangtze River.

Instead of pursuing a career in big cities after college, Zhou returned to his hometown of Yibin in Sichuan province to assist his father, Zhou Shiwu, in establishing the institute.

At that time, many fish species endemic to the Yangtze River faced severe threats from overfishing, sand and rock dredging, and dam construction. By around 2000, naturally bred juvenile Yangtze sturgeons could no longer be found along the entire stretch of the river.

A breakthrough came in 2004, when Zhou and his team figured out how to breed the species on a large scale. That year, tens of thousands of Yangtze sturgeon fry hatched at the institute's breeding farm.