Yunnan: The conservation and sustainable use of indigenous fish species has achieved remarkable results

There are 594 species of indigenous fish in Yunnan, accounting for 37.5% of the number of freshwater fish species in the country, ranking first among all provinces in the country. Fish diversity has declined since the 1960s, especially in highland lakes, where endangered species account for more than 60 per cent of indigenous fish species in lakes.

In view of the severe situation of indigenous fish conservation in Yunnan, the team of Yang Junxing, a researcher at the Kunming Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has been committed to the conservation and sustainable use of indigenous fish. At present, the team has relocated 102 species of indigenous fish in Yunnan, broken through artificial breeding technology of 48 species, and initially realized the industrialization of 3 species, including Dianchi Lake golden herring, catfish whitefish and soft-finned new light lip fish.

Taking the Dianchi Lake golden line catfish as an example, the Dianchi lake golden line catfish was once the main fishing object of fishermen along the Dianchi Lake, and the production was quite abundant, since the 1960s, due to various factors, the number of dianchi golden line catfish has decreased sharply. By the end of the last century, the lake body of Dianchi Lake had basically disappeared, and only a very small number of populations remained in the surrounding rivers and Longtan. It was listed as a National Class II Protected Animal in 1989 and declared Critically Endangered by the IUCN Red List in 2008. Since 2000, Yang Junxing's team has begun to study the number, distribution, habitat, feeding ecology and breeding ecology of the Dianchi lake golden ray in the basin, carried out wild introduction and artificial domestication in 2004, successfully artificial breeding in 2007, and then carried out breeding and stocking studies to restore its wild population. So far, more than 2 million Dianchi golden-line catfish have been added and released to the Dianchi Lake Basin, and the evaluation results of the breeding and stocking effect show that the Dianchi lake golden-threaded catfish has formed a stable population in the Panlong River, and the growth and development are in good condition. To this end, Yang Junxing's team innovatively proposed to adopt the "flower-fish-snail-bird" three-dimensional ecological restoration model of indigenous organisms to restore the ecosystem, and carried out ecological restoration demonstrations in plateau lakes such as Dianchi Lake, Erhai Lake and Qilu Lake, and achieved good ecological, economic and social benefits.

At the same time, Yang Junxing's team also carried out research on the sustainable use of Dianchi golden ray catfish, and after four consecutive generations of breeding, cultivated a new aquatic variety of Dianchi golden ray catfish with fast growth and weakened intermuscular spines - "Catfish You No. 1", which is the first new aquatic species in Yunnan Province and the first new species created based on national protected fish in China. The approval of the Dianchi Golden Line Catfish "Catfish You No. 1" marks the success of the exploration from conservation to sustainable use of the Dianchi Golden Line Catfish, and at the same time, proves the feasibility of developing the characteristic fishery industry of the Yunnan Plateau represented by the Dianchi Lake Golden Line Catfish. (China Daily Yunnan Reporter Station)

Source: China Daily