Xinjiang Bosten Lake: 500,000 flatfish have been released in total!
Bosten Lake, today's largest inland freshwater swallowing lake in China, is also a typical mountain sinking lake. However, due to the strong light and natural rainfall in this place, the water in the lake is not expected to rain on the old days, and the main water source is supplemented by the Kaidu River.
People who are my age, there should be many people who have seen Journey to the West, the legendary "quicksand river", in fact, the prototype is this river. This Kaidu River is mainly distributed in the area of Hejing County in Xinjiang, and the mysterious "Sunjing Island" in Journey to the West is actually located in Hejing County.
Because Bosten Lake is located in the southeast of the Yanqi Basin in Xinjiang, its altitude is not high, and the altitude of the lake is about 1048 meters. In 2020, Lake Bosten had a water area of 1646 square kilometers, with an average depth of 9 meters and the deepest place was 17 meters.
Flatnose fish, that is, the Xinjiang bighead fish in many people's population, is a fish that only exists in China, and it is a veritable "giant panda in the water"! Available archaeological evidence suggests:
Since its birth, this species has only "one genus and one species" and is only distributed in the Tarim water system, and once Lake Bosten was the largest source of wild flatnose fish, but later wild flatnose fish have disappeared here. In 1988, the species of flatnose fish was officially listed as a first-class protected endangered wildlife by the mainland.
Do you know? In addition to the more than 30,000 flatnose fish that have just been released, Bosten Lake has released a total of 500,000 flatnose fish, the difference is that the newly released flatnose is not only a sub-second-generation fry, but also their specifications are larger than in previous years, and the growth period has reached more than 3 years. In addition, newly released flatnose fish can also trace their traces by chip markers, ARS alizarin red markers and VIE fluorescent ribbon markers.
The data shows that the number of flatnose fish released throughout Xinjiang exceeds 1.5 million, but the part of it that is marked for release is probably only the later 250,000, and it is mainly concentrated in Bosten Lake (200,000 are marked).
The researchers said that Lake Bosten has formed a certain population size of flatnose fish, and more than 200 labeled flatnose fish will be recaptured in 2021. That is to say, although tens of thousands of flatfish were released, not all of them were wasted, especially when the release specifications were larger and the tracking methods were more complete, which provided an important basis for follow-up scientific research investigations.
Flatnose fish can grow up to 120 pounds, is a fierce large carnivorous fish, is the other fish in the lake enough for them to eat?
First of all, the release of so many flat-kissed fish in Xinjiang, including Bosten Lake, is not released at one time, it has been more than ten consecutive years, and the survival rate of early stocking of fish fry is not high. It is undeniable that the flatnose fish is a veritable ferocious large carnivorous fish, the main food is other fish and animals in the lake, can grow to eighty or ninety centimeters long when adulthood, and if the weight is particularly heavy, it may reach 100 to 120 pounds.
The purpose of artificial breeding and stocking of flatnose fish is to ensure that this species does not become extinct, rather than posing a threat to other species, so now the stocking must monitor how many of the released fish have survived, on the one hand, it can monitor the recovery of the flatnose fish population, on the other hand, of course, it is to weigh the ecological stability, it is difficult to occur that other fish in the lake are not enough flatnose fish to eat.
Moreover, today's Bosten Lake is originally rich in all kinds of freshwater fish, and there is no larger fishing production base in The whole of Xinjiang, of course, this is related to the multiple introductions in the 1960s and 1970s, and some economic fish that originally lived in the Irtysh River and even the Yangtze River Basin were introduced into the lake.
Therefore, the fish living in Bosten Lake have changed from several species to more than 30 species, most of which are still economic fish. No matter how fierce the flat-kissed fish are, not all of them can grow to 120 pounds, and the current population is still very limited, instead of worrying about whether they will eat other fish and animals in the lake, it is better to observe whether they can adapt well to so many fish and animals, and they must live with themselves in Bosten Lake.
From an annual output of 260 tons, it is difficult to find one! Lake Bosten was originally the largest source of flat-kissed fish, why did it become extinct?
Why wild flatnose fish will disappear in Bosten Lake, in fact, this problem is not difficult to understand, because, decades ago, flatnose fish was treated as an economic fish, as long as you can spend money to buy and eat, at that time there were special fishing teams to catch flatnose fish, especially in the southern part of Xinjiang, flatnose fish has always been a more traditional local food, it is said that "meat is tender as tofu, soup is fresh as milk", anyway, it means that it is more delicious.
How the flatnose fish has disappeared from Lake Bosten can also be seen in the changes in the number of catches in the past:
Between 1958 and 1965, there were still many wild flatnose fish in Bosten Lake at this time, because the production at that time was as low as 140 tons and as much as 260 tons, which was about the fluctuation in this range, directly accounting for one-fifth of the entire Bosten Lake production, which was enough to show that there were many flatned snout fish in Bosten Lake at that time.
But by 1966 and 1987, Lake Bosten was able to catch fewer and fewer flat-snouted fish, from 30 tons per year to finding one.
Although the flatnose fish has become an endangered species, it does have its own reasons, such as poor reproductive ability and not very agile action, but man-made overfishing is still one of the main reasons for the threat of extinction of the entire population, in addition, when a large amount of agricultural water is used, it will also lead to a decline in the water level of Bosten Lake, coupled with the construction of a lot of water conservancy facilities on the Tarim, which will naturally affect the breeding activities of the flatnose fish.
The origin of the flatnose fish can be traced back to 300 million years ago, so it will be called "ancient fish living fossils", we must protect it from extinction, not only because it is a unique fish species in the mainland, but also has great research value. Any species that has not yet gone extinct has a chance to make amends, although it seems to be more difficult to protect than to destroy.