Expert of this article: Liu Yadan, researcher, deputy secretary-general of China Agricultural Association for International Exchange, chief science communication expert in China
Like knife fish and anchovies, river pufferfish have been known as the "three fresh" of the Yangtze River since ancient times, and these three fresh may have been promoted by the literati, but the pufferfish and the other two fresh have many different characteristics:
The first is the fish that the public will eat at the risk of death. There are many ancient proverbs praising pufferfish, there are many poems praising pufferfish, and Japanese people who like pufferfish also have many literature praising pufferfish, which means that after eating pufferfish, they know what the taste of fish is. However, after eating pufferfish, eating other fish will be tasteless. The taste of pufferfish is so delicious that you can imagine!
The second is that the emperor does not eat fish that the people can eat. Unlike knife fish and anchovies, knife fish and anchovies are fish that were sent to the capital for the emperor to enjoy in ancient times, and the name of the pufferfish is popular in the folk, but there is no record of which dynasty emperor praised the pufferfish. Because nature is magical, the river pufferfish tastes very delicious, but with high poison, everyone knows that eating river pufferfish risks their lives, that is the risk they are willing to take, if you let the emperor eat, it is suspected of murder! It is said that Kangxi and Qianlong went down to Jiangnan many times, and the ministers did not dare to risk being killed to offer this delicacy to the emperor. Therefore, only the people dare to eat pufferfish desperately; the people are not afraid of death, but they are afraid of death.
However, the real people who can eat pufferfish are really not ordinary people, because although the emperor does not eat it, the price of pufferfish has also been blown up by the literati. Therefore, in the past, to eat pufferfish, in addition to not being afraid of death, it also needed to be affordable.
Speaking of ancient times, the river pufferfish can be called the "king of fish", not only the above culture and legends. It is still attractive in terms of its nutritional value and medicinal effect. Pufferfish is extremely rich in nutrients, not only has a high content of protein, DHA, EPA and unsaturated fatty acids, etc., and its fat content is very low, eat more and are not afraid of gaining weight. Pufferfish also has many effects in dietary therapy: first, it has an effect on the treatment of common diseases of the elderly, such as dispelling cold and dehumidification, lowering blood pressure, alleviating waist and leg pain, and restoring sperm; second, pufferfish toxins have significant effects on the treatment of some special diseases, such as skin inflammation, tetanus, whooping cough, asthma, etc., and even help to treat stomach cramps, enuresis, impotence and other diseases. It is understood that the toxin of pufferfish can also be made into a strong analgesic for pain relief, especially for cancer patients with obvious effects on pain relief.
There are many kinds of pufferfish, which one is the Yangtze River pufferfish?
Pufferfish is a general term for a large group of fish, with many species, more than 240 species have been found, and are widely distributed in tropical and temperate regions of the world. We often say that pufferfish are only common species with certain economic value, there are about 30 kinds, such as the dark-striped oriental pufferfish of the oriental puffer genus, the double-spotted oriental pufferfish, the redfin oriental pufferfish, the lead-spotted oriental pufferfish, the purple eastern pufferfish and the insect-striped oriental pufferfish, etc.; the lunar-belly stinger of the genus Ventral Squid, the dark-finned ventral stingray, the brown-spotted belly pufferfish, etc.; the black gill-headed puffer of the rabbit-headed puffer genus.
Pufferfish are also migratory fish, mostly living in the sea, but there are also some at the confluence of freshwater and sea and freshwater. China's pufferfish are mainly distributed in the coastal waters and the lower reaches of some rivers, and edible pufferfish live in the river. Someone once asked me why some people called pufferfish and some people called pufferfish, and what is the difference in the use of the words "dolphin" and "pufferfish"? When we collectively call the pufferfish, we can use the common name of "dolphin", and when it comes to families, genera and species, we use the word "pufferfish". Folklore says that when catching pufferfish out of the water, it will make a pig-like call and is called a pig in the river, hence the name "porpoise". In fact, it does not only bark when it is caught, but also when it encounters danger.
The shape of the pufferfish is peculiar, brightly colored, and there are many stripes, but different species of pufferfish have great differences in body shape, color, spots, stripes, spines, fin shapes, etc., which can be used to distinguish different pufferfish. Most pufferfish are also named after the shape of their appearance, some are named after the shape of the black spots on the body, such as the round-spotted oriental pufferfish and the bow-spotted oriental pufferfish; some are named after the white spots on the body, such as the star-dotted oriental pufferfish and the lead-dot oriental pufferfish; there are also named after the color of the fins, such as the yellowfin oriental pufferfish; and the name is named after the stripes on the body, such as the transverse oriental pufferfish and the insect-patterned oriental pufferfish.
After saying all this, which kind of pufferfish is one of the "three fresh" of the Yangtze River? The answer is: dark-striped oriental pufferfish. It belongs to the pufferfish genus oriental pufferfish of the family Pufferfish, which originally grew in the Yangtze River Basin of China. How to identify the dark-striped oriental pufferfish? From its morphological point of view: the back of the dark-striped oriental pufferfish is tea-brown, with 5-6 dark brown broad horizontal stripes, which straddle the back of the eyes, the neck, above the pectoral fin and above the front of the dorsal fin, with a narrow yellow-brown band sandwiched between each dark brown band.
Dark-striped Oriental Pufferfish | @ Look at the Fish app
The depletion of wild pufferfish resources and the rise of aquaculture in the Yangtze River?
In the early years, the resources of pufferfish were very rich in China. The highest annual production recorded is 40,000 tons, which is one of the main fishing objects along the coast and in the middle and lower reaches of the river. The dark-striped oriental pufferfish, that is, the Yangtze River pufferfish, was once a fish that was often caught by fishermen along the rivers of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Nanjing. With the deterioration of the ecological environment of the Yangtze River and the growth of fishing demand, the population of dark-striped oriental pufferfish in the wild of the Yangtze River has been decreasing, and the resources have gradually declined, and by the end of the last century, they have basically exhausted. It is gratifying that through the efforts of fishery administrative departments and scientific and technological personnel, there has been frequent good news recently, with the implementation of the ten-year ban on fishing in the Yangtze River, rare fish such as wild pufferfish are gradually returning.
The Yangtze River pufferfish is a relatively successful case in the protection of wildlife species. Since the early 1990s, many enterprises began to cooperate with scientific research institutions, and the Zhongyang Modern Fishery Science and Technology Industrial Park, a national aquatic origin farm in Hai'an City, Jiangsu Province, was an enterprise that was committed to the artificial breeding of rare fish in the Yangtze River relatively early, and their artificial breeding of Yangtze River pufferfish was successful.
Thanks to the success of artificial breeding, a large number of artificially bred fish fry are released into the Yangtze River every year. It is reported that in 2020, the breeding and stocking activities of pufferfish will be carried out at the mouth of the Yangtze River, and the scale of release of dark-striped oriental pufferfish will reach 160,000. The release of pufferfish has contributed to the recovery of wild resources.
The success of captive breeding is that it also meets the needs of the market while protecting wild resources, while reducing the risk of eating pufferfish. In the past, because of the great toxicity of pufferfish, the toxic situation was extremely complicated, and it was not uncommon for poisoning incidents caused by accidental ingestion or improper processing of pufferfish every year, which was listed as one of the major food safety problems in China and attracted the attention of government management departments. In 1990, China issued the "Aquatic Products Sanitation Management Measures" because wild pufferfish are highly toxic, and it is clearly stipulated that river pufferfish are not allowed to enter the market and are prohibited from eating. The temptation of delicious food to people still leads to poisoning incidents from time to time. In order to solve these problems, the "National Collaborative Group for the Safe Utilization of River Pufferfish" was established to carry out research on the safety of the edible consumption of river pufferfish in 1993 with the approval of the former Ministry of Health. The results of the study confirmed that the toxic content of farmed pufferfish was significantly reduced compared with that of wild pufferfish, and it was safe to eat after non-toxic processing. In 2016, the former Ministry of Agriculture notified that pufferfish can be officially conditionally opened. However, the opening of pufferfish has very strict management requirements, including: one is to manage the breeding base, the base for breeding pufferfish should be recorded; the second is to manage the processing, the processing personnel of the breeding of river pufferfish should be assessed, and the processing follows the safe processing process; the third is to put good quality and product safety, the quality of the pufferfish product has standards and the product quality and safety have a full traceability system and so on. If you strictly follow the above regulations and step-by-step, you can ensure the safety and non-toxicity of the pufferfish, and the pufferfish do not have to eat it desperately.
In fact, we say that the pufferfish, in addition to its ecological value and edible and medicinal value, the color, form and its cute habits have attracted the attention of many people. In particular, pufferfish are very cute, once they encounter danger, or are in an unfavorable environment, the abdomen can immediately inhale air, so that their bodies swell, into a round, bulging appearance, very cute. In addition, it will perform sand drilling, rolling eyes and blinking eyes, and will also grit its teeth and make a "grunting" sound to intimidate enemies. Fish lovers have been experimenting with the adorable pufferfish as ornamental fish.
The significance of protecting the wild pufferfish of the Yangtze River is of great significance, and the ecological, social and economic value is very high. I hope that with the joint efforts of everyone, the lovely Yangtze River pufferfish will always share this river clear water with us!
