The agreement, to which Canada is a signatory, recently sparked a massive planning effort in this country to build more than 100 new hydro-electric dams in central and western parts of the country to generate cleaner energy and replace aging fossil-fuel-burning plants to meet Canada's reduced greenhouse gas emissions target (six percent below 1990 levels) under Kyoto.

But, these structures will cut off the armour-plated lake sturgeon that once swam in nearly every river and lake in North America, survived predation by dinosaurs and was a staple for local aboriginals for centuries, from its breeding grounds as well as destroy its habitat, said environmentalists.

"It's a bizarre turn of events that this species is now connected to Kyoto," said University of Manitoba zoologist Terry Dick. He has been trying in earnest to reintroduce the lake sturgeon into local rivers.

"It's a big problem because hydro-electric dams are primarily built on good spawning sites or nursery areas where the fish feed. It's going to be an issue in (the provinces of) Manitoba and Ontario where they're now looking at rivers where before they weren't going to have hydro-electric dams," he said.

These so-called living fossils can live to more than 100 years, weigh as much as 100 kilograms and grow to more than two metres long. With elongated, cone-shaped snouts and rows of bony plates on their backside, the freaky fish are prized for their meat, eggs (caviar) and oil. But, their numbers in western Canada have steadily declined during the past 150 years since the arrival of European settlers due to overfishing.

A century ago, Canadian fishermen netted millions of kilograms of lake sturgeon each year, stacking them like logs on lakeshores. But, sightings of them nowadays are rare enough to make newspaper headlines and scientists estimate fewer than 1,000 are left in western Canadian rivers and lakes -- equal to the remaining number of plains bison that were once a symbol of Canada's vast prairies.

Now, plans to build three massive hydroelectric dams in the province of Manitoba and 100 or more smaller dams in Ontario over the next decade, according to government officials, all connected to a new east-west power grid to feed Canada's industrial base in Ontario, will quicken the fish's demise, observers fear.

The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, tackling the issue a year ahead of originally planned after sensing some urgency, has declared the species endangered in western Canada and at risk in eastern Canada. This follows similar actions in the United States.

Its recommendations will be forwarded to Canada's environment minister, then face public scrutiny at a series of meetings meant to measure the economic and social implications of protecting the species. However, it may take up to 18 months before the minister decides whether to list the species as endangered and come up with a recovery plan.

On Monday, Environment Minister Stephane Dion chose not to protect the wild plains bison, which once numbered tens of millions.

Some experts still believe the species could bounce back, but most are unequivocal in their belief that the fish is doomed because it reproduces so slowly, spawning only once every four to six years, and there are not enough left to sustain a breeding population.

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