1. First acquaintance with pike. Pike, as the name suggests, should be a vicious-looking and fierce fish species. Sure enough, the body of the pike is slender and flattened; the mouth is flattened, the jaw is prominent, the mouth is extremely wide, and the appearance is similar to that of the crocodile eel; the adult pike is about 60 cm long and weighs 2-4 kg, and a small number of pike can grow to more than 16 kg.
Compared with other fish, two characteristics of pike are extremely significant and impress fishermen. One is that pikes are hot-tempered and eat a lot. Pike fish are typical carnivorous fish with sharp, fine teeth that are clearly visible in a tapered shape on the upper and lower jaws. The fish, shrimp and crabs in the river are basically its hunting targets, and it is difficult to meet the opponents.
In a state of starvation, rats, wild ducks, and frogs that are active at the water's edge often become its mouth. When pikes kill prey, they often hide, wait until the fish is close, tear it up at a speed of more than 8 km / h, and then swallow it quickly, and the pike can swallow nearly half the body weight of food at a time, which can be described as the "big stomach king" in fish.
In addition to the crazy hunting, the fast growth and long lifespan of the pike is another significant feature of it. In the waters where it inhabits, the pike is basically in the tip of the food chain, and even if it encounters predators, it often escapes with its hard scales. Ordinary pike have a lifespan of 60/70 years, which is considered to be the "leader" among fish.
In 1974, a water on the outskirts of Moscow called Yellow Lake, which had not been cleared for many years, accidentally caught a pike during this large-scale dredging process. Amazingly, the gill lid of this pike is embedded with a gold ring engraved "Release of Tsar Boris Dorovich". According to the time of Boris Dorovich's death, the released pike survived for at least 200 years. However, the golden ring of inscription has been controversial about its authenticity, and the longest life of the pike can only be treated as a legend.
2. The current situation and threat of pike fish. Pike is not a scarce species, there are 8 species of pike active around the world, of which there are two kinds of pike in China: one is only inhabited in the Irtysh River Basin of Xinjiang, the other is the black spotted pike distributed in the Waters of Heilongjiang And other sporadic waters, and there are also Pikes in the Yellow River Basin of China.
Before the 1980s, there were significant numbers of pikes in the waters of the Yellow River. Pike fish grow fast and feed rapidly, and once dominated the Yellow River. The meat of pike is new, white, delicious, and the meat is thick and thorny, which is very suitable for cooking, and often appears on some high-end occasions. Therefore, there were fishermen in the yellow river waters who caught pikes for a living, and the pikes caught could be sold or exchanged for food to support their families.
The sharp decline in the number of Pike in the Yellow River occurred after 80 years, and after 80 years, China implemented reform and opening up, chemical plants, smelters, and paper mills on both sides of the Yellow River rose from the ground, and the wastewater discharged from production was not even treated, directly discharged to the Yellow River, eventually leading to the deterioration of water quality. Pike prefers thin waters, and is not oxygen-tolerant, and mostly inhabits locations with abundant dissolved oxygen, especially the seedlings of pike have extremely high water quality requirements. Therefore, due to water quality problems, the number of pike fish gradually began to decrease.
In addition, from 1980 to 1999, there were 21 interruptions in less than 20 years, and the one in 1997 was as long as 226 days. Not only pike, but also the star fish species, the Yellow River carp, have all died out in large numbers. After 2000, it became increasingly difficult to find traces of pike swimming. The last pike in the Yellow River was in 2018, but this one belongs to the white spotted pike, not the indigenous people in the Yellow River, and it was finally found that the pike escaped from a nearby farm.
China's pike colonies are mainly in the northeast of several major waters, pike is a cold-water fish species, the climatic conditions of the three northeastern provinces have significant advantages, Heilongjiang, Ussuri River, Wudalianchi, Suifen River have the distribution of pike. Similar to the waters of the Yellow River, the number of pikes in major rivers has repeatedly shrunk due to water pollution, overfishing and water conservancy construction.
However, in recent years, the water quality has improved significantly, and the pike fish have begun to re-emerge from the rivers and lakes. In 2018, fishermen in Hulin City accidentally caught a pike with a length of 1.4 meters, a width of 0.35 meters and a weight of more than 30 kilograms when they were big fish in the Ussuri River, usually at the level of 4/5 kilograms in the Ussuri River, which is undoubtedly a giant-like existence.
Fortunately, as early as 2007, China broke through the artificial breeding problem of black spotted pike, and in July of that year, 70,000 pike fry were released into the waters of Heilongjiang. Scientific researchers first according to the growth status of pike, select the best broodstock, and then inject separately to induce labor, while carrying out artificial sperm collection and fertilization work, after 7 days of growth of fertilized eggs, pike seedlings can "break out of the eggs". Finally, after a little breeding, it reaches a certain size and can be released into the ussuri river, Songhua River and other waters.
The overall supply of pike in China is small, so the price of pike in the market remains high, so some people have tried pike breeding for a long time, and after years of exploration and practice, some practical skills have been summarized. From 20 cm in July, pike seed can grow to 30 cm and weigh more than 500 grams of commercial fish that meet the specifications in just three months. Under the condition of superior market environment, the profit per mu can reach 10,000 yuan. Linyi and other places in Shandong Province have successively built several pike breeding bases with an annual output value of more than 10 million, which has taken a solid step for the large-scale breeding of pike in China.
So it doesn't seem difficult for pikes to return to the Yellow River? In fact, at present, there is still a risk of deterioration of water quality in the Yellow River waters, and fishing and electric fishing behaviors in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River occur from time to time. Like the Yellow River carp, if there is a return to its former glory, it is bound to produce a series of chain reactions, and how to choose and weigh the pros and cons will be an extremely challenging problem.
Original: Old High