Once, when it comes to the aquatic products of the Yangtze River, the "Yangtze River Three Fresh" puffer fish, anchovies and knife fish are absolutely delicious and cheap. But now, because the puffer fish is poisonous, it has been included in the "forbidden list" everywhere for a long time, and the knife fish has been quite scarce and expensive, and those who can eat authentic Yangtze River knife fish are all rich lords.
The most tragic is the anchovy in the three fresh, from the 60s to the 70s, is the golden age of anchovy fishing, from that time easy annual catch of 300 tons to 500 tons, and even in 1974 reached the highest 1575 tons, after 1975, the anchovy seems to have begun to shrink, this year's catch is 345 tons. A full decade later, in 1986, anchovies were caught at just 12 tonnes a year.
Fishing focuses on fishing floods, but since the record 1575 tons, the anchovies in the Yangtze River have never been flooded, and even other wild Yangtze River fish have not appeared. To this end, in 1987, the Yangtze River in order to restore anchovy fish banned. And during this fishing ban period, anchovies are included in the national level of protected wild animals.
But what was the result? In 1994, in the Yangtze River Basin in Anhui Province, a fisherman surnamed Zhang accidentally replenished a two-pound small anchovy. This is the last record of anchovy catch. In 1996, the researchers did another 21-day large-scale fishing operation in the area, but not a single anchovy was caught.
So where did the anchovies, which were originally very easy to catch, go? This is mainly due to the impact of hydroelectric dams. Between April and May of each year, anchovies swim from the coast to the Yangtze River, which is also known as migration. However, after the construction of the Gorge River in the Baqiu Zhenjiang section of the Ganjiang River, the migration route of the anchovies will be cut off, so that the anchovies will have to find new spawning grounds. The new spawning grounds are located hundreds of miles away, which has led to a significant reduction in the number of anchovies that can successfully migrate to the spawning grounds.
In addition, the existence of hydropower stations has quietly changed the water temperature of various sections of the Yangtze River. Every year during the Dragon Boat Festival, the water temperature in the Ganjiang River section is about 22 degrees, which is also the best spawning water temperature for anchovies. After the construction of the Kewan'an Hydropower Station, the water temperature at the spawning site dropped to about 10 degrees, so that even if the anchovies developed normally, it was difficult to reproduce.
At present, there is still a section of more than 100 kilometers of water in the lower reaches of Xiajiang County, which is suitable for anchovies to spawn and breed, but are there really wild anchovies in the Yangtze River? Can they find it here again? It's all question marks.
What about natural reproduction, artificial reproduction?
In the beginning, the anchovies in the breeding process continued to die, and after breeding, they were put into the Ganjiang River and never returned. And with the fact that there are fewer and fewer anchovies in the wild, it is difficult to provide artificially farmed parents.
There are also some people who see here with doubts, but suddenly feel that "Yangtze River anchovies", in the supermarket to see that there are sold ah, what is the matter?
In fact, as long as it is declared that "Yangtze River anchovies", they are "substitutes", most of these so-called "Yangtze River anchovies" come from Myanmar, and many consumers for unknown reasons have paid an "IQ tax" for "Mekong anchovies".
In addition to the "Mekong anchovy", there are also long-tailed herring from the United States, Long-tailed anchovies from Indonesia or Singapore, and the cloud anchovies in Myanmar, all of which look very similar to the Yangtze River anchovies, and are sold in the market as "Yangtze River anchovies", and they are not once in the news.
Today, the Yangtze River anchovy has been extinct for nearly 30 years, with the beginning of the 10-year Yangtze River fishing ban period, we expect that the Ecology of the Yangtze River will improve in 10 years, including the Yangtze River anchovy, including the Yangtze River anchovy can be restored, so that the Yangtze River anchovy can reappear!