Sturgeons have lived on the earth for hundreds of millions of years with little morphological changes, thus called as “living fossils”. They are one of the most endangered fish groups. Among the three sturgeon species in the Yangtze River, Psephurus gladius has extincted functionally, Acipenser sinensis is going to become extinct in natural environments, and Acipenser dabryanus is also critically endangered. The negative effects of spawning behaviors caused by the construction of dams in the main river is the biggest reason, followed by overfishing. There are serious misjudgments in authoritative experts about the impacts of dam construction on sturgeons, and the measures taken to save the fish after the completion of the dam have little effect, as the paddlefish has long gone, and the wild population of Chinese sturgeon is on the verge of extinction. In recent years, there is a popular viewpoint that the release of warm water from the reservoir delayed the spawning of Chinese sturgeon, consequently with their failure to lay any egg. However, postponement doesn't lead to the conclusion that it's impossible to lay eggs. Accordingly, the proposed joint reservoir operation is not effective even if it can be implemented. As the giant and long-lived Chinese sturgeons have low ecological resilience, and need to cross a vast space between coastal waters and the upper Yangtze River to complete the life story, if they can't lay eggs naturally, their extinction will happen sooner or later. During the past decades, millions of Chinese sturgeons were released artificially into the Yangtze River, but few survived with little supplement to the wild population. Therefore, it is urgent to re-evaluate the endangered mechanisms (especially the ruined conditions for natural reproduction) and the effects of artificial release and to re-adjust fish rescue strategies.