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Changes in the resources of the Yangtze River
The Yangtze River is no stranger to everyone, with a total length of more than 6,300 kilometers, is the world's third largest river, according to incomplete statistics, there are about 4,500 species of aquatic organisms living underwater in the Yangtze River, including 416 species of fish in the Yangtze River basin.
There are also more than 180 kinds of fish that are unique to the Yangtze River, such as the beloved Yangtze finless porpoise, which is affectionately known as the "river pig", and the baiji dolphin, which is known as the "goddess of the Yangtze River" and "giant panda in the water".
However, for a long time before, due to the influence of Yangtze River shipping and overfishing of fisheries, some rare endemic species in the waters of the Yangtze River continued to decline, and even economic fish stocks were close to depletion.
According to relevant information, there are almost 230,000 fishermen in the Yangtze River basin who make a living from fishing, but in order to reap more profits, some fishermen even hesitate to use some illegal fishing tools, such as "Lost Soul Array" and "Peerless Net", which have caused excessive fishing of fish in the Yangtze River Basin.
One of the most famous fishing tools is the "Lost Soul Array", where fishermen set up nets in the river, waiting for the fish to throw themselves into their nets, whether large fish or small shrimp.
The emergence of these tools is simply a disaster for aquatic organisms in the Yangtze River.
According to the survey, in the past few decades, the ecological environment of the Yangtze River has entered a vicious circle of getting worse and worse and fishermen catching poorer, and the integrity index of the Yangtze River has reached the level of "no fish".
For example, the Yangtze finless porpoise, which has been on the earth for almost 25 million years, but due to the destruction of the ecosystem, its overall number is small, and it is now a national first-class protected animal.
The reproductive capacity of finless porpoises is very slow, only one litter at a time, 4 to 7 years old to mature sexually, even the better Yangtze finless porpoise, they can only reproduce two litters in three years at most, which also makes the species more scarce, and is listed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
In 2006, scientists from six countries around the world formed the Yangtze River Freshwater Dolphin Scientific Survey Team, which aimed to search for white-sided dolphins along the 1,700-kilometer stretch of the Yangtze River, and concluded that the finless porpoise population was rapidly declining, leaving only about 1,800, and its population was even smaller than that of giant pandas.
Not only that, but scientists have warned that finless porpoises are declining at a rate of 5 to 10 percent per year, and if strong measures are not taken soon, they could well drop to 200 by 2035.
More regrettably, after Chinese and foreign scientists declared the baiji dolphin functionally extinct, they also analyzed the finless porpoise, and if its population decline does not improve, then the finless porpoise is likely to be similar in the future.
Therefore, it is urgent to protect the ecology of the Yangtze River, and on January 1, 2021, the ten-year fishing ban on the Yangtze River officially began, that is, from the moment the notice was issued, no institution or individual will be allowed to carry out productive fishing on the Yangtze River in the next ten years.
Why ban fishing?
In April 2022, two men in Anhui Province, knowing that the local Yuxi River was in a ten-year fishing ban period, rowed to the middle of the river four times and used batteries to charge hundreds of kilograms of catch, and the two men were caught red-handed.
According to the mainland's Fisheries Law, such acts as exploding fish, electric fish, and poisonous fish are illegal fishing methods that destroy fishery resources, and they still fish during the closed period.
On February 20 this year, the verdict was announced, and the actions of these two people constituted the crime of illegal fishing of aquatic products.
Their fishing method can electrocute all aquatic organisms within a certain range, even higher mammals such as finless porpoises cannot escape.
Before the ban, fishing boats were everywhere on the Yangtze River every day, and according to the China Wildlife Conservation Association, no fewer than 13 finless porpoises died unnaturally in the first half of 2015.
Some of them were suffocated by fishing nets, electrocuted by illegal tools, and some were cut to death by propellers, and the promulgation of the fishing ban protected the overall ecological environment of the Yangtze River.
The 10-year ban on fishing in the Yangtze River has achieved remarkable results
An uncle near the Huang Spray Bridge in Chizhou City, Anhui Province, said in an interview: "I have lived here for more than 60 years, and I have never seen so many fish in the river since I was a child. ”
It turned out that the reason why this uncle was so happy was that large and small fish appeared in the river, all kinds of fish, because the number of fish was too much, and even the originally clear water was dyed black.
Among them, a large fish with a body size of more than one meter will occasionally pop up, jumping out of the water, as if greeting people, standing on the side to look at the lively crowd will also joke that take a bucket and put it on the shore, maybe the bucket will be full in a while.
But this is just a joke, now this is the section of the river where fishing is prohibited, even if there are fish jumping into people's arms, they still have to obediently put them back.
Porpoises appear
At about 9 a.m. on March 23, 2022, fishery law enforcement officers near the Yangtze River, as usual, suddenly found that at some point, a group of finless porpoises appeared on the surface of the Yangtze River playing and playing.
Seeing such a scene, the staff present were shocked in their hearts:
Since the promulgation of the fishing ban, they have rarely seen finless porpoises on the surface of the river, only a few finless porpoises playing on the surface of the river, and groups of finless porpoises playing on the surface of the river are really rare.
This time, so many finless porpoises appeared on the surface of the river at once, even as rare as giant pandas, which also made many people happy, because finless porpoises are carnivores, mainly feeding on other fish in the water.
Today's growing population of finless porpoises means that the number of other fish species in areas where finless porpoises are active is also increasing.
The number of finless porpoises is as high as 1249
At a press conference held by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the process of change of the finless porpoise, a scarce creature in the Yangtze River, was clearly pointed out, and although the plan has only been fully implemented for a few years, it is clear that the population of finless porpoises is recovering.
The results of the Feb. 28 porpoise expedition, released in October of the previous year, showed that the number of finless porpoises in the Yangtze River had recovered to 1,249.
Some people will ask, how is this data calculated? Is there really no duplication?
In fact, thanks to the mainland's science and technology in animal protection, scientists first set up a sampling point every 80 to 100 kilometers in the Yangtze River, and then take river water from the sampling point when they need to investigate.
After successfully taking out the river water, professionals will use professional instruments to filter it, and then filter out the skin cells shed by the porpoise and some excrement and other things.
Finally, the filtered content is sent to the laboratory, where special research experiments analyze its DNA to detect the distribution of finless porpoises in this area.
In addition, scientists are also equipped with professional instruments, such as passive acoustics, image-assisted observation systems and other technologies, and finally obtain accurate population numbers after careful calculations.
Big copperhead caught fish
Before a video was posted on the Internet, in the Yichang section of Hubei on the Yangtze River, someone caught a giant copperhead fish about 1.6 meters long, and when they saw such a large fish, many people around were also stunned.
In the early days, this fish was very rare, the scientific name of the copperhead fish was "anchovy", but because of the coppery yellow color of the head, people also called it "copperhead fish". ”
Because of the large number of fishing in the past few years and the development and pollution of some water conservancy facilities, the number of these fish is gradually decreasing, and such huge fish are gradually included in the ranks of rarity.
Now, these large fish have once again appeared in the Yangtze River, which is really an exciting thing, and it can be seen that the fishing ban plan has begun to bear fruit, and the Yangtze River basin is slowly returning to the former scene of fish flowers.
Now that big fish are frequent, what will the Yangtze River look like in ten years?
A variety of fish are found
Today, with the implementation of the national fishing ban plan, species diversity in the Yangtze River basin is gradually recovering, and researchers have found fine-scaled mackerel, iso-bladder loach and perch carp that have disappeared for many years.
Not only that, but the number of investigable fish stocks has risen from 32 before the ban to 37, and it is perhaps, in a few years, the types of fish in the Yangtze River basin will become more diverse.
The big fish of the Yangtze River have reappeared
Now in the implementation of the ban on fishing, the Yangtze River basin is slowly returning to its previous vitality, and when seeing the emergence of finless porpoises and some huge fish being fished, many people speculate whether there will be bigger fish in the future?
According to local villagers, when fishing in the past, they used to catch Chinese sturgeon weighing up to 700 pounds, not to mention other large fish, which was commonplace before.
However, now 100-pound big fish are very rare, which is inevitably embarrassing, I believe that with the implementation of the fishing ban plan, perhaps in the near future, we will be able to see the Yangtze River big fish reappear.
The more complex the ecosystem, the more stable it is
If the Yangtze River is well protected, will it lead to the proliferation of organisms?
When seeing so many fish in the Yangtze River, many people will worry that the common ecological environment is getting better and better, and biodiversity is also increasing, so will there be a situation of biological flooding at that time?
In fact, there is no need to worry about this matter, because ecosystems are a cycle, and they have a "balance scale" in themselves.
In an ecosystem, if there are only producers and primary consumers, then this is not enough, it can be said that the more complex the food chain and the richer the diversity of species, the more stable the ecosystem.
Once the ecological chain of the Yangtze River is restored and the population of various organisms has grown to a certain extent, these organisms will exercise mutual restraint in the food chain, so that the ecosystem can develop in cycles and achieve stability.
For example, if big fish eat small fish, small fish eat shrimp, and carnivorous fish gradually recover, then the development of herbivorous fish populations can be suppressed.
Where the fishermen of the Yangtze River are going
When the ban was first enacted, some fish lovers and fishermen were opposed, with most believing that ten years was too long.
Then, with the emergence of copperhead, the benefits of the fishing ban period were verified, and people saw that the fishing ban policy is beneficial to the development and protection of the ecological environment.
Some netizens said that 2021 is the beginning of the "ten-year fishing ban", and now in just one year, everyone has seen the different faces of rare species, which is not only a thing worth celebrating, but also the best example of the fishing ban policy.
The voices that had previously raised opposition also gradually disappeared, and the fishermen began to enter a life of transformation.
According to relevant statistics, there are about 260,000 fishing boats on the Yangtze River, and the number of fishermen exceeds 350,000, and after the complete fishing ban, fishermen will also be successfully "transformed." ”
It can be seen with the naked eye that there are fewer fishing boats on the surface, and the number of fishermen has also decreased, and after the fishermen return to the shore, the state will also have corresponding policy support to help fishermen adapt to the work on the shore faster and better.
Because the work of fishermen is also special, they go ashore to live like farmers who have lost their land, there is nothing at once, and most of them are older, so their lives will face many problems.
However, local governments have introduced many policies to help fishermen find employment, and will also hold some job fairs to solve their employment problems for fishermen.
For example, from the innate advantages of fishermen, they have been engaged in fishing for a long time, which just shows that they are familiar with the habits of fish, although they cannot fish in the Yangtze River today, but they can play their strengths and engage in some fishery breeding industries.
For example, aquatic product processing industry, leisure tourism fishery, vigorous development of freshwater aquaculture and other industries, they can use their advantages to make these industries better.
There are also older fishermen who can work in aquaculture, or some simple fisheries training; If anyone is interested, you can also carry out training related to e-commerce.
Not only that, but many fishermen have become "persuaders," who spontaneously patrol the riverside every day to protect the environment of the Yangtze River.
As soon as they become aware of illegal fishing, they immediately inform the enforcement team and discourage those who fish privately.
Usually, they will take the initiative to clean up the garbage on the shore, create a beautiful environment for the Yangtze River, and give the fish in the water a clean living space.
The emergence of groups of finless porpoises is the best witness of the restoration of the Yangtze River ecosystem, but the restoration of the ecosystem is not completed in a short time, and we should abide by national regulations to protect our common home.
Let's look forward to the picture of "green water, green mountains and fish cheering, and man and nature living in harmony" ten years later!