In March 2021, on the surface of the Yangzhou section of the Yangtze River, a very magical scene appeared, in the shallow water basin of the river, at a glance, it was full of fish covered with dense rivers. The dense school of fish stretches for 20 to 30 meters, the scene is extremely spectacular, during which fish jump up from time to time, and there is a feeling of fish jumping the dragon gate in a trance, which is of great ornamental value. And the distribution of fish varies in size, with some larger fish preying. Such a sight has not been seen for a long time, and it is the first time since the ten-year ban on fishing was issued. In the former Yangtze River, people fished heavily for fish in the river, resulting in a large number of fish losses, and some fish were even endangered.
As the longest river in the mainland, the Yangtze River should be rich in fishery resources. So why are fish in rivers on the verge of extinction? What causes this? Will the ten-year fishing ban really have the opposite effect?
The Yangtze River is full of fishing
In addition to its special geographical significance, the Yangtze River also provides many resources for mankind. As the largest river in the world in terms of hydropower resources, the Yangtze River provides great value to mankind through the Three Gorges Dam.
The Yangtze River also provides great biological value for human beings, and there is a Yangtze River in the most abundant river in the world. According to incomplete statistics, there are a total of 424 species of fish living in the Yangtze River, of which 183 species of fish are unique species of the Yangtze River, and the Yangtze River can be regarded as a hotbed for the survival and development of fish.
In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the fish in the Yangtze River were very abundant, and they all lived a life of abundant food and clothing. Among them, finless porpoises, as the weather vane of the Yangtze River ecological chain, live by preying on fish, and when the number of fish in the river decreases, their number will also decrease. In the Yangtze River at that time, the porpoise could be seen everywhere, and it could also be seen that the Yangtze River had a good ecological environment.
By 2006, however, the number of finless porpoises had been drastically reduced, leaving only 1,800 in the river. By 2018, there were only a pitiful 1,012 finless porpoises, and some rare fish that were once only found in the Yangtze River were gone. What is the reason why the river ecosystem of the Yangtze River is so bad, and the fish will be reduced on a large scale.
It turned out that in the past few decades, due to management negligence, many people and organizations have fished heavily in the Yangtze River. This exhaustive way of fishing has caused the fish in the Yangtze River to decrease very quickly. Moreover, the fishing methods are still very bad, and illegal fishing methods such as electric fish, poisonous fish, exterminated nets, barrage nets, etc. have emerged in an endless stream, which has caused great damage to the ecological environment of the Yangtze River.
In the long run, the fish resources in the river are getting less and less, and the ecosystem is getting worse and worse, and the income of fishermen who rely on the river to eat is naturally greatly reduced. This not only caused great harm to the fish in the river, but also caused great damage to the environment, but also caused economic damage to the fishermen, which can be described as a three-defeat injury.
Previously, the Yangtze River had set a three-month fishing ban period every year, but the harvest was minimal. Because the three-month fishing ban period is not enough for the fish to get enough time to breathe, they will face arrests without full recovery. Faced with this situation, the state decisively promulgated the Fisheries Law of the People's Republic of China, tentatively stipulating that fishing in the Yangtze River will be prohibited for less than 10 years, otherwise it will face serious punishment.
Ten-year fishing ban
According to the Fisheries Law of the People's Republic of China and the spirit of the notice issued by the relevant state departments, from January 1, 2021, the Yangtze River Basin has begun to completely ban fishing, and the fishing ban time is tentatively set at 10 years.
In the face of the severe environmental situation of the Yangtze River, the state has banned fishing for the whole year and banned fishing in the whole section of the Yangtze River, and the government is determined to restore the healthy ecological circle of the Yangtze River. Since the introduction of relevant policies by the state, the ecological circle of the Yangtze River has undergone a significant change.
Under such strong protection measures, some fish began to slowly raise their heads, and the bluefish and silver carp were the best of them. After no pressure to catch, the highly reproducing fish began a large-scale recovery. Bluefish can spawn 600,000-1 million at a time, while silver carp can spawn 200,000-250,000 at a time, so that it only takes one season to produce a large number of offspring.
Other fish also began to slowly recover, and some of the once endangered endemic fish began to gradually recover, and the fish in the Yangtze River began to increase for a while. The most notable is the top prey of the finless porpoise, which has been gradually increasing since the decree was issued, which also indicates a huge improvement in the situation in the river. So there is a scene at the beginning of the article.
The number of fish has grown rapidly in a short period of time, and it seems that the ecological environment has been greatly improved, so some people have raised objections: will the ten-year fishing ban period be too long? In this regard, experts said that it takes 4 years for the average fish to successfully reproduce two generations. If the setting time is too short, only a part of the fish breed a generation and hastily end the fishing ban, then the ban on fish is not much significance.
Netizens raised such questions, mainly because they were worried that the ten-year fishing ban period would lead to a huge blow to the aquatic industry and affect the supply of fish in people's daily lives. According to relevant data, the fishery resources of the Yangtze River account for only 0.15% of the mainland fisheries.
The so-called fishery resources of the Yangtze River are actually only a rarity for us, and even if the fishing ban period is as long as ten years, it will not have any impact on our daily lives. And most of the domestic edible fish are artificially cultivated fish, so the Ban on Fishing on the Yangtze River will not have any impact on our lives, and his main goal is to protect the rare species in the Yangtze River and reduce biological extinction.
The Yangtze River is more like a gene bank for fish, because artificially farmed fish will have some genetic problems after several generations of breeding. In order to ensure the sustainable development of farmed fish, they will often study some wild species of the same kind to find treatment solutions.
Therefore, protecting the Yangtze River is also protecting our artificial farms, so that we can always eat healthy and harmless fresh fish. If the Yangtze River is damaged, we may not even be able to eat the most common "four big fish" in normal times. The ten-year fishing ban can leave more living space for the fish in the Yangtze River, so that our Yangtze River can rest and recuperate during these years, and restore the diversity of the environment and species.
The counterproductive effect of overprotection
Less than two years after the implementation of the fishing ban period, the number of fish in the Yangtze River has been significantly improved, and some lakes along the Yangtze River have also been developed, and the number of fish has soared rapidly for a time, and it seems that it has reached the original expected goal. But everything is the opposite of things, after the river has been greatly recuperated. The "overcrowding" phenomenon in some rivers and lakes seems to herald a bad thing.
Hubei began to ban fishing in 2018, and in January 2021, a total of 18 million kilograms of fish were caught in five lakes in Hubei. Years of protection have led to the great development of fish, and naturally also allowed fishermen to obtain a bumper harvest. However, when people were counting soon, they found that There were 7 million kilograms of fish living in Luhu Lake, and the ecological carrying capacity of this lake was only half of the amount of fish, 3.5 million kilograms.
Although the number of fish has increased, if the rate of increase is not controlled, it will cause too many fish and damage the local ecological environment. Anyone who has farmed fish knows that once there are too many fish, the demand for food is greater. However, natural lakes do not have artificial feeding, if the fish demand for food exceeds the lake's capacity, it will lead to a large number of fish starving to death due to lack of food, and the carcass will pollute the lake, causing large-scale death of fish in the lake.
There are two sides to everything, and the large growth of fish in lakes can lead to ecological imbalances in lakes. Although there will be some mutual eating relationships between fish, the reproduction rate of different fish is different, and the hunting relationship between them is also very unstable, so the ecological balance between fish will be broken, resulting in the destruction of the ecological circle.
However, for the Yangtze River, such a situation should not be so easy to appear, after all, the Yangtze River is a relatively large ecosystem, and the food chain inside is still relatively healthy to a certain extent. After all, in addition to the fish in the river, the birds that fly by and even the creatures on the shore will prey on fish, and there will be no overcrowding of fish in the Yangtze River for a while and a half.
But some people also have questions, if the ten-year fishing ban period is over, how will they face the fishing situation? If there is an incorrect hunting method, will it lead to a significant decrease in fish in the Yangtze River? In this regard, experts said that after the ten-year fishing ban period has passed, it will be assessed according to the ecological environment in the river, and then relevant fishing policies will be introduced to ensure that there will be no more extreme situations of fishing that were exhausted before.
In fact, nature has given us a lot of resources, it has also nurtured countless lives, we should not destroy our "mother" because of our own selfish desires.