On February 28, 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs announced at a press conference that during the scientific investigation of the Yangtze finless porpoise in the whole basin in 2022, it was found that the population of the Yangtze finless porpoise was 1,249, an increase of 23.42% compared with 2017, and an average annual growth rate of 4.3%.
On March 2, 99 pairs of mother and child finless porpoises were found in Shizhu County in the upper reaches of the main stream of the Yangtze River. There are also more than 20 finless porpoises jumping in the water and shaking the scene.
Pairs of finless porpoises
It has to be admitted that since the implementation of the ten-year ban on fishing in the Yangtze River, the aquatic biological resources and diversity of the Yangtze River have shown a trend of recovery, and many endangered fish species stocks have been restored. According to relevant data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, in 2022, 193 species of fish were monitored in key waters of the Yangtze River Basin, an increase of 25 species from 168 in 2020.
In addition to finless porpoises, the number of saury and puffer fish in the Yangtze River, which were once the "three fresh fish of the Yangtze River", is also gradually recovering. In the case of knifefish, its frequency increased from 25% in 2020 to 100% in 2021, its share in fish catch increased from 3.11% to 9.66%, and its weight increased from 2.41% to 7.42%.
But to this day, the anchovy, the head of the "three fresh foods of the Yangtze River", is still missing. From 1998, the Bali River in Anhui Province, where anchovies once inhabited the most, Poyang Lake and Gan River in Jiangxi, Qiantang River in Zhejiang, and the Pearl River system from Zhaoqing to Guangxi in Guangdong, there are no more anchovies.
In fact, in 1988, anchovy was also listed in the "Red Book of Endangered Animals of China" - Class I wild protection, and together with the finless porpoise, it was listed as a first-class protected animal in 2021.
As both a protected animal and a migratory animal, why has the finless porpoise population been restored, while the anchovy is still on the verge of extinction? What happened to the anchovy? When did anchovy start to become scarce?
Yangtze river anchovy
The once brilliant anchovy industry
Once upon a time, anchovy was the easiest fish to catch in the Yangtze River, and during the flood season, the anchovy swam back to the Yangtze River in groups, and the fishermen along the river could easily harvest a bumper harvest, and a fishing boat could catch more than a thousand fish casually. And the size of the anchovy is not small, the large one can have seven or eight catties, and the small one has one or two catties.
According to records, between 1957 and 1962, the production of shad in the Yangtze River was between 298 and 584 tons. This is still the yield under backward fishing conditions.
In the 70s, after the fishermen improved the fishing net, the production of anchovy was even more impressive, and the annual output reached 1575 tons in 1974, which translates to such a 5-ton truck, more than 300 trucks to pull.
A truck with a load of 5 tons
Although the output is high, because the meat is tender, the price of anchovy has always been more expensive, in the 70s it cost 5 cents a catty, and more than three catties were at least 8 cents a catty.
Combined with the prices at that time, imagine how expensive it was. An old man once said that in the early 70s, four classmates had a meal in a state-run restaurant, each with a cup of beer, a platter, and half a kilogram of fire, and the total cost was 1.7 yuan. And a 3-pound anchovy costs 2.4 yuan.
It can be seen that anchovy was considered a valuable food at that time. The Yangtze River anchovy is called "treasure in the water" for a reason, and its unique flavor has made many people praise. The high yield and high quality of anchovy have made anchovy a "fish" for a while.
Delicious steamed anchovies
The sudden decline of the anchovy industry
However, things are bound to reverse, and in 1974, after the shad industry ushered in rapid growth, it ushered in a year of cliff-like decline.
In 1977, there was a slight rebound, and since then it has plummeted. In 1980-1985, production could still fluctuate between 100 and 50 tons.
After 1986, it was no longer possible to calculate production in tons, and by 1989, there were only 17 catches, and although the catch was related to the protection policy introduced in 1988, the anchovy industry ended completely. Since then, the appearance of anchovies has been counted in strips.
Information on anchovy production
Anchovy catch records after the 90s of the 20th century:
In 1992, Zhejiang fishermen caught an anchovy of less than 1 kilogram in the Fuchun River.
In May 1994, Anhui fishermen caught a 2-kilogram anchovy in the Wuhu section of the Yangtze River.
In June ~ July 1996, the Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute organized fishermen to look for anchovies in the Xia River section, operating continuously for 27 days, dispatching 93 boats, with a cumulative fishing time of 414.5 hours, and found nothing.
In 1998, Jiangsu fishermen caught a 3-kilogram anchovy in the Jiangsu section of the Yangtze River.
Since then, no one has caught anchovy in the Yangtze River.
Obviously, the disappearance of anchovies is inseparable from the large number of human catches. In fact, all rare animals are inseparable from humans, and by the time we find out to protect them, it is too late, such as the extinct paddlefish.
So, is the Yangtze River anchovy also extinct? According to the observation period of 50 years of fish extinction, the Yangtze River anchovy still exists for 25 years of observation time, in the next 25 years, can the Yangtze River anchovy still appear?
Miserable Yangtze River anchovy
Overfishing and chemical contamination of water sources are common scourges for fish. No matter how many fish there are, they can't help but have no "fish", big fish and small fish are all caught in one net, who will breed the next generation, and where will the next generation of fish come from?
Even if there are fish that have managed to escape, if they are allowed to stay in the polluted waters, they will be terminally ill and die.
What's more, there are more deadly ones. The construction of water conservancy projects is a common catastrophe for migratory fish in the Yangtze River. Whether it is finless porpoise, knifefish, pufferfish, or Chinese sturgeon, all of the water conservancy dams built on the Yangtze River, such as the Three Gorges Dam and Gezhou Dam, have blocked the way home for generations of spawning.
If you add to this their own weak reproductive ability, then they are destined to become protected animals.
Three Gorges Dam
In fact, the reproductive ability of anchovy is as limited as that of knifefish and pufferfish, and the sexual maturity cycle is as long. But one of the main reasons for the lack of recovery of the Yangtze River shad population is that it is too difficult to breed anchovies.
Originally, in the 30s of the 20th century, experts conducted artificial breeding experiments on anchovies. In 1958, artificial insemination of Fuchunjiang anchovy was initially successful. In the early 70s, the Yangtze River Fisheries Institute began to carry out scientific investigations on wild anchovy populations. In 1982, more than 30,000 anchovies were also artificially bred.
It took more than 50 years to artificially breed seedlings in large quantities, which is really difficult. But more difficult than breeding is domestication.
As there are fewer and fewer wild anchovies, broodstock for artificial breeding are becoming more and more difficult to find, resulting in no new and more wild anchovies for artificial breeding, and the broodstock previously caught have weakened due to long-term captivity, and the quality of fish eggs can be imagined.
Later, experts focused on the cultivation of second-generation parental fish. In 1997, the captive-bred anchovy began to spawn, but unfortunately the mortality rate of the seedlings hatched by the parent fish was too high, and the study ended in failure.
And the shad we see on the market now is not Yangtze River anchovies, but a kind of anchovies relatives in the United States. This anchovy looks very similar to the Yangtze River anchovy, but the meat quality is much worse.
So, can the Yangtze River anchovy still return to our field of vision?
Since the 80s of the 20th century, the mainland has begun to pay attention to the protection of wild animals, during which it has taken many detours and difficulties. The state has invested a lot of financial and human resources in the protection of endangered species.
As early as the 80s, the mainland included some fish in the list of protected animals and banned fishing. However, in the 80s and 90s, the water conservancy projects of the main stream of the Yangtze River did not support the construction of ecological fish channels, and the regular storage and release of water by dams changed the water temperature and volume of rivers, blocking the connection between rivers and lakes.
In 2011, the Three Gorges Reservoir launched the first ecological dispatch experiment, which promoted the reproduction of the four large fish by continuously increasing the discharge flow and using the dispatch means to create the hydrological and hydraulic conditions suitable for fish reproduction. Since then, ecological scheduling has been continuously implemented every year.
Since 2020, the ecological control scope of the Three Gorges Reservoir has been expanded from the river section under the dam to the reservoir area, and the target fish have also been expanded from drifting eggfish mainly "big fish" to sticky egg-producing fish mainly carp and crucian carp.
In January 2020, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued another announcement on a ten-year fishing ban on the Yangtze River. The maturity time of fish in the Yangtze River is generally about 3 or 4 years, and the ten-year fishing ban allows wild fish in the Yangtze River to reproduce freely for 2-3 generations, providing them with a more breeding environment.
Fisheries law enforcement
At the same time, the Yangtze River Protection Law came into being. On December 26, 2020, the 24th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress of the Communist Party of China passed the Yangtze River Protection Law. The Yangtze River Protection Law clearly stipulates the discharge standards for pollutants in the Yangtze River, strengthens the control of wastewater discharge, and thinks of ways to improve the quality of water quality in the Yangtze River.
These initiatives have proven to have had a clear effect on the recovery of wild fish, with many growing in steps. It is precisely because of these initiatives that we can see endangered finless porpoises entering and leaving the Yangtze River in pairs.
Although wild anchovies have not yet been found in the Yangtze River, continued ecological protection can still give us a glimmer of hope. According to relevant information, there are more than 100 kilometers of water in the lower reaches of Xiajiang County in the Ganjiang River that are theoretically suitable for anchovy spawning, and if a small number of anchovies in the river arrive here smoothly, the natural population of anchovies may recover.
Ganjiang Gorge section
As long as there is a silver lining, our protection cannot stop. The ecological dispatch of the Yangtze River and the ten-year fishing ban have created favorable conditions for the recovery of aquatic biological populations in the Yangtze River, and I hope that one day, we can once again usher in a spectacular anchovy flood.