According to The China News Network on April 10, 2022, the national original cochineal seed farm in Wanzhou District, Chongqing, located in the heart of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, will artificially hatch 10 million cochineal fry for breeding and stocking in the Yangtze River and expanding the number of rare fish in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area.
Rouge also has the reputation of "Asian mermaid", April is the breeding season of the national second-class endangered rare animal cochineal, stocking so many fish, the Yangtze River will not be full of fish? Where did the rouge fish that used to be stocked go and washed into the sea?
Rouge: Why did you go to artificial hatching?
Originating from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the Yangtze River on the southwest side of the Goladan Winter Peak in the Tanggula Mountains flows through 11 provincial administrative regions and flows into the East China Sea from Chongming Island, with a total length of 6397 kilometers, which is the longest river on the mainland, second only to the Nile River in Africa and the Amazon River in South America, ranking third in the world.
The annual runoff of the Yangtze River is as high as 93 billion cubic meters, the Yangtze River system is developed, the Yangtze River system is very rich, almost encompassing most of the southern region of China, of which there are 437 tributaries with a basin area of more than 1,000 square kilometers, 49 with a basin area of more than 10,000 square kilometers, and 8 with a river basin area of more than 80,000 square kilometers. Among them, the basin area of the four tributaries of the Yalong River, the Min River, the Jialing River and the Han River all exceed 100,000 square kilometers.
Large area of water system, abundant runoff, so that the Yangtze River fishery resources were once very rich, the Yangtze River fishermen since ancient times have "a thousand pounds of wax elephants, yellow row is not the same as the big" saying, "wax" is said to be chinese sturgeon, "elephant" is white sturgeon, too big "yellow row" is said to be rouge fish.
In addition to these "big fish", there are more than 350 kinds of fish in the Yangtze River system, including the four major fish that you are familiar with: bluefish, grass carp, silver carp, bighead carp, mandarin fish, catfish, anchovies, whitefin dolphins and Yangtze River knifefish and so on.
But now we all know that the Chinese sturgeon and cochineal have become endangered species, and the Yangtze River white sturgeon was officially declared extinct on December 23, 2019, in order to protect the yangtze river fishery resources, from 2003, the Yangtze River Basin implemented an annual 3 to 4 months fishing ban period, but obviously to no avail, the Yangtze River fishery resources recession is serious:
- Anchovies: long extinct;
- Wild pufferfish: very few in number;
- Knifefish: a sharp decline in numbers;
- ......
In January 2021, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued a notice on its official website on the scope and time of the ban on fishing in key waters of the Yangtze River Basin, announcing that the ten-year fishing ban plan for the Yangtze River will be implemented from 00:00 on January 1, 2020.
Yangtze River Fishery Resources: Why Did It Fall Here?
Answering this question is very complicated because it is a systemic question, but the main reasons are as follows:
- 1. Indiscriminate fishing and indiscriminate fishing in the Yangtze River system;
- 2, the Yangtze River system has become a busy waterway;
- 3. The cascade development of hydraulic resources in the Yangtze River hinders the reproduction of migratory fish;
According to a report by the China Digital Science and Technology Museum on December 28, 2019, the indiscriminate fishing of barracuda is the main reason why the aquatic biological resources in the Yangtze River Basin have been seriously declined, and eventually a vicious circle of less and less resources, worse and worse ecological catches, and poorer fishermen are.
According to the data released by Shanghai Jiaohai Shipping on January 10, 2022, since 2005, the Yangtze River trunk line freight volume has ranked first, becoming the most prosperous river in the world, with a freight volume of 1.123 billion tons in 2007, a freight volume of 2.31 billion tons in 2016, and a cargo throughput of more than 3.5 billion tons in 2021.
Busy ship transportation affects the rest and recuperation of fish, especially large fish may be injured by propellers, and the noise of the ship host will also affect the use of echo positioning such as white-tipped dolphins and finless porpoises on the Yangtze River, and getting lost and stranded eventually makes it difficult for these animals to survive.
The yangtze river has the greatest impact on fish is obviously the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, the Three Gorges Dam standing on the Yangtze River hinders the migration of fish, the ecology of the Yangtze River is divided into two, of course, some construction is necessary, the construction of the Three Gorges has also undergone a strict approval process by the environmental impact assessment department.
Artificial breeding: Assists rare and endangered fish species in the recovery of populations
For example, the spawning ground of chinese sturgeon is upstream, and its spawning site was briefly established in the lower reaches of the dam after the Three Gorges Reservoir area was cut off, but it did not form a long-term spawning area, but the Yangtze River is very important for the ecology of Chinese sturgeon, so the China Sturgeon Research Institute of the Three Gorges Group has continuously implemented 65 Chinese sturgeon stocking activities since the first implementation of artificial breeding and stocking of Chinese sturgeon in 1984, and has released nearly 5.3 million Chinese sturgeon into the Yangtze River, releasing more than 258,000 Chinese sturgeon tails.
The artificial hatching of the cochineal, the "Asian mermaid" mentioned above, was also established in this context! Rouge fish is commonly known as yellow row, blood row, powder row, fire bream, wooden leaf plate, red fish, etc., its juvenile fish body shape, brilliant color, swimming quiet, is known as "smooth sailing", enjoy the reputation of "Asian mermaid".
Cochineal fish for the bottom of the feeding fish, mainly based on benthic invertebrates and organic matter in the bottom mud slag for food, male fish sexual maturity time of more than 5 years, female fish more than 7 years can enter the breeding period, in mid-February, the breeding period of the cochineal fish migrate to the Jinsha River, Min River, Jialing River and other real estate eggs, this time is just from early March to late April
After the cascade development of the Yangtze River water branch resources, the cochineal migration route was blocked, artificial hatching and stocking has become an important way to replenish the number, and the staff of the mullet national original seed farm of the Fisheries Research Institute of Wanzhou District of Chongqing Has been busy "artificially inseminating" for the cochineal who have entered the breeding period since the end of March.
In fact, the semen of the cochineal is diluted and mixed with the eggs, after stirring, adding water to activate, standing insemination, absorbing water and expanding several processes, and then put into the hatching pool for incubation, the number of fish eggs in this year's batch is above the level of tens of millions, unlike natural hatching, the artificial hatching rate is much higher.
Chongqing Wanzhou District Fisheries Research Institute has been committed to the artificial breeding of rare and protected fish in the Yangtze River since 1973, and in 2016, the only original cochineal seed farm in China was built, and the cochineal breeding technology is in a leading position in the country. In the past ten years, the institute has stocked more than 70 million rare fish into the Three Gorges reservoir area.
Where did the fish that used to be stocked go and washed into the sea?
This is a very interesting topic, so many fish have been stocked for so many years, where has it gone? Was it really washed into the sea? In fact, it is a really difficult question to answer where to go, because fishing has been banned since 2020, so it will certainly not be fished!
But whether the stocked fish will be 100% alive is another problem, such as the rouge fry stocking individual is relatively small, its survival rate is relatively low, but its large number is its advantage, and the Chinese sturgeon released when the individual is relatively large, its survival rate is obviously relatively high, then the question is, where did these stocked fish go?
Will it really be washed into the sea?
Whether the fish will be washed into the sea, this is actually not a problem, just like the Chinese sturgeon, they are born in the upper reaches of the river, grow in the sea, they are themselves a kind of broad salinity fish, they can adapt to the survival of the sea, but also use freshwater migration, so the Chinese sturgeon is indeed "washed into the sea", but they will still come back.
The cochineal is a large middle and lower freshwater fish, living in freshwater for life, its living place is in the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, but the number of upstream is large, and the fish come and go freely in the water, there is no problem of being washed away. (End)
reference:
https://m.chinanews.com/wap/detail/chs/sp/9724880.shtml