WUHAN, April 14 (Xinhua) -- About 500 captive-bred Chinese sturgeon were released Saturday into a section of the Yangtze River in central China's Hubei Province.

The released sturgeon were aged between one and nine years old.

This is the 60th release by the Chinese Sturgeon Research Institute of China Three Gorges Corp., which has introduced more than 5 million sturgeon to the wild since the 1980s.

Believed to have lived at the same time as dinosaurs, the Chinese sturgeon has existed for more than 140 million years. The fish is under top national protection.