Top News Henan Business Daily Chief Reporter Han Zhonglin
For ecological conservation reasons, Japanese legislation will prohibit the sale or release of crayfish.
Chinese love for crayfish seems to be the existence of the "only stall", which objectively also allows China to have the world's largest scale of crayfish farming. Once in just 13 years, mainland crayfish production has increased 8 times.
Similar to Japan, the crayfish, which originated in the United States, should be an exotic species for China, and in less than 100 years, it has spread to more than 20 provinces on the mainland.
In the context of the rapid expansion of crayfish, should the mainland pay attention to its impact on the original ecology?
[Fearing ecological damage, Japan will ban the sale of crayfish]
On May 11, the Japanese diet voted to pass the revised Alien Biological Law, which will prohibit the sale or release of crayfish in the future, and the Japanese government aims to implement the law within one year.
Many "shrimp-eating masses" in China are very puzzled by Japan's practices, why do the Japanese not ban whaling, but enact legislation to ban the sale of crayfish?
The top news Henan Business Daily reporter learned that in fact, crayfish is not a particularly popular food in Japan, and even many people think it is unhygienic.
"I went to China once and was taken and eaten." Japanese man Masaki Teruse told top news reporters that few Japanese people like to eat crayfish.
According to Masaki Teruse, most Japanese people feel that crayfish are cleaned up and absorbed from the dirty things in the water, and used to eat them is not hygienic. "If the bad impression is improved, crayfish should also be very popular in Japan."
Xiao Yuan, a Zhengzhou girl who just returned from studying in Japan in March this year, also said that during her study in Japan, she rarely saw Japanese people eating crayfish.
"There are frozen ones in the store." Xiao Yuan said that Japanese restaurants rarely sell crayfish except For Chinese restaurants. "Some Chinese students will go fishing by themselves and cook their own food."
Mr. Li, a Henan boy who is working in Japan, also said that his Japanese friends around him have basically not eaten crayfish. "I specifically asked, and some people said they were afraid of heavy metals exceeding the standard."
"The introduction of American crayfish was first intended for consumption." Terase Masaki believes that crayfish, as an imported organism, have a great influence on the native organisms of Japan.
According to Japanese media reports, Japan banned the sale of crayfish precisely because it was worried that the flood of crayfish would cause ecological impact. After being brought into Japan, crayfish breed in ponds around the country, leading to a sharp decline in native species.
【Crayfish from the United States, which have spread to more than 20 provinces in China】
Like Japan, crayfish are alien species to China and are now widely distributed in China.
"In the 1920s and 1930s, crayfish were introduced to China from the United States." Wei Kaijin, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, introduced that crayfish were first distributed in Jiangsu and Anhui on the mainland.
In the 1960s and 1970s, due to natural migration and human factors, crayfish gradually spread to the provinces in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, but at this time, crayfish, mainly wild, artificial farming is not much.
"Since about 2001, artificial farming has been increasing, and crayfish have gradually spread throughout the country. Especially in the last decade, the growth has been too fast. "Wei Kaijin said that crayfish are currently distributed in more than 20 provinces on the mainland." Heilongjiang has it, Hainan has it, and it can be said that it is from south to north. ”
According to the "China Crayfish Industry Development Report (2021)" compiled by the Chinese Fisheries Society and the China Aquatic Products Circulation and Processing Association, as of 2020, there are 23 provinces in the mainland with crayfish farming reports (statistics do not include Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, the same below).
Except for Gansu, Qinghai, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Jilin, Beijing and Tianjin, crayfish farming is almost everywhere.
The rate at which crayfish "expand" on the continent is staggering.
The data shows that in 2020, the total production of crayfish farming in mainland China reached 2.3937 million tons. In 2016, this data was 852,300 tons, compared with only 265,500 tons in 2007, which can be said to have increased 8 times in 13 years.
"The scale and production of crayfish farming in mainland China are the first in the world." Wei Kaijin said that although Chinese's love for crayfish is very high, objectively speaking, he feels that the production and scale of crayfish in the mainland have exceeded market demand and need to be paid attention to.
【Crayfish is not only a delicacy, but also brings hundreds of billions of output value to the mainland every year】
If you think that crayfish is just a delicacy for Chinese, you are very wrong, in fact, it has brought good economic benefits to the Chinese people.
"Crayfish can expand rapidly across the country, mainly due to consumption." Wei Kaijin said.
In fact, as early as 2019, the total output value of the mainland crayfish industry has exceeded 400 billion yuan, and in 2020, the impact of the epidemic has decreased, but it has also reached more than 340 billion yuan.
The mainland crayfish industry not only meets the needs of the "shrimp eating masses" in the country, but also exports to overseas, and even the origin of the United States must be imported from the mainland.
For example, in 2016, the export volume of mainland crayfish reached 23,300 tons, with exports of 259 million US dollars, of which exports to the United States reached 100 million US dollars, accounting for 40%.
Crayfish can not only promote macroeconomic development, but also become a good way for many farmers to increase income.
"Xinyang mainly adopts a combination of rice and shrimp farming methods." Wang Xinyi, general manager of Henan Nongdu Agricultural Development Co., Ltd., introduced that with Huangchuan County as the center, Xinyang has formed an industrial chain integrating crayfish breeding, sales, deep processing and service.
"One mu of land can increase income by one or two thousand yuan per year." Wang Xinyi said that through the model of leading enterprises + industrial bases + cooperatives, local crayfish farming directly drives farmers to become rich. "Grain production is basically unaffected, and one mu of land can produce about 80 kilograms of crayfish per year, and the price per kilogram is about 15 yuan."
【While enjoying the food, should the mainland pay attention to the impact of crayfish on the original ecology】
Some "shrimp eaters" will ask whether China should worry about the fact that Japan's crayfish farming area and production are far less than China's, and they are still worried about the destruction of the ecology by crayfish.
"Crayfish are exotic species, and if Chinese if they are not eaten, they will indeed cause some damage to ecology and agricultural production." Yang Dede, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, said that the expansion ability of crayfish is very strong, and it is easier to form an advantage in the ecosystem.
"Those who are engaged in industry will certainly not say so, but I am engaged in ecological research, and my personal opinion is also something that needs to be paid attention to." Yang Dede feels that from the perspective of ecological protection, Japan's legislation prohibiting the sale of crayfish should be formulated according to national conditions and is a normal phenomenon. "If no one cares, it will definitely cause flooding, and our country should not have this phenomenon for the time being, after all, the industry is so big now."
Chen Parent, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, told the top news reporter that the damage of crayfish to the ecological environment is in some parts of the country. But on the whole, Chinese prefer to eat, the problem is solved.
"The demand is relatively large, and the wild is certainly not available." Chen said that although China's crayfish production is high, most of them are farmed and relatively rare in the wild, so the damage to the ecological environment is generally controllable. "Now farming is all about eating feed."
"When we talk about the invasion of alien species, it means that after the alien species arrives in the local area, it poses a threat to the original species because of its own food chain problems." Wei Kaijin introduced that wild crayfish in nature, mainly feeding on plankton, insects, small snail lions, small river mussels, etc., will indeed have some impact on domestic species, but at present, it has not shown a large-scale destructive impact on the ecology.
"Localized small-scale effects do exist." Wei Kaijin said that compared to piranhas, eels, a branch of yellow flowers and other species that can cause devastating damage to the local ecology, crayfish have far less ecological influence.
"The number of wild crayfish on the mainland should be decreasing over the years." Wei Kaijin said that many wild crayfish are caught for food or shrimp fry, which also limits the damage of crayfish to the ecological environment.
【Henan crayfish rapid expansion, will the ecology be impacted?】 】
Hubei, Anhui and Jiangsu are the main crayfish producing areas in the mainland, and Henan is adjacent to these provinces, and the same development of crayfish farming.
The report on the development of China's crayfish industry over the years shows that Henan crayfish production has been stable in the country for many years, and the growth rate is very rapid, increasing by 83.8% in 2019 alone.
"Henan crayfish farming is mainly concentrated in Xinyang, and it is also sporadically distributed in other places." Li Guoxi, a professor at Henan Agricultural University, said that Henan crayfish farming is mainly based on the combination of rice and shrimp, and there are fewer specialized pond cultures.
Li Guoxi believes that for Henan, there is no obvious boundary between wild and non-wild crayfish. Because the crayfish in Henan are basically farmed, the so-called wild is only "escaping" from the rice field to the ditch, and gradually breeding in the wild. "The vitality is relatively strong." “
"In the early years, crayfish were listed as invasive species." Li Guoxi said that with the improvement of the people's understanding of the consumption and economic value of crayfish, it has gradually been promoted as an economic species.
"The main thing is to watch out for it 'absconding.'" Li Guoxi believes that the impact of crayfish on the ecosystem of Henan is currently relatively limited, after all, with the love of Chinese people for crayfish, even if they "flee" to the wild, it is difficult to form a population.
Wang Xinyi told the top news Henan Business Daily reporter that when local farmers in Xinyang cultivate crayfish, they will install "anti-escape nets". Beware not only of crayfish running into the wild, but also of running to other people's rice fields.
"Shrimp prefer to dig holes." Wang Xinyi said that in the rice shrimp combined culture model, the hole dug by the crayfish may cause "water leakage", if it is a terrace, the impact will be relatively large, and the Xinyang crayfish culture is basically a flat field, so the impact is small.
Wang Xinyi introduced that in the main production area of Xinyang, the crayfish itself is not without natural enemies. "Rats, snakes, bullfrogs, blackfish, these all eat crayfish."