Expect the rare fish in the Yellow River to increase

Henan Daily reporter Liu Xiaobo

Speaking of the rare fish eel in the Yellow River, Zhao Daoquan, head of the germplasm resource bank of the Provincial Academy of Fishery Sciences, could not hide his excitement.

"In June this year, we found three eels in the Changyuan section of the lower reaches of the Yellow River. In the 1970s and 1980s, eels migrated annually between the Yellow River and the Yellow Sea, but were later lost for many years due to the construction of large reservoirs, the interruption of the Yellow River and water pollution. The reappearance of eels now indicates that the ecological environment of the Yellow River has been greatly improved. On October 11, Zhao Daoquan said in an interview with reporters.

Compared with eels, the northern copper fish, which is also a rare fish, is not so lucky. "This fish was the main economic fish in the middle reaches of the Yellow River before the 1960s, but its number gradually decreased due to overfishing and water pollution of the Yellow River, and the last time it was found in the Yellow River was in 1996, and it has never been seen since." Wang Yanhui, head of the scientific research section of the Provincial Academy of Fishery Sciences, sighed.

Once, the Yellow River Basin was rich in fish resources, with more than 120 species of fish in the main stream alone, but by the beginning of this century it had dropped to more than 80 species, and some "indigenous" species had faded from sight, and some species were endangered.

It is urgent to protect rare fish and restore biodiversity.

Since 2005, our province has released a total of 1 billion fish such as four major fish (blue carp, grass carp, silver carp, bighead carp), Yellow River carp, Qihe crucian carp and other fish, and established 20 national aquatic germplasm nature reserves such as Yellow River carp, Qihe crucian carp, wrinkled crown mussel, Vasshiro and Ussuri carp; established 3 provincial nature reserves for giant salamander and yellow-edged closed-shell turtles, and 2 county-level nature reserves for giant salamander.

Genetic diversity is an important part of biodiversity. In 2015, relying on the Provincial Academy of Fishery Sciences, our province established an aquatic germplasm resource bank, which has preserved 33 kinds of aquatic germplasm resources and 20,000 germplasm materials such as Yellow River carp, Yellow River catfish, quasi-catfish and yellowtail catfish.

"The phylum not only achieves preservation, but also achieves large-scale breeding. Last month, we stocked 20,000 fish in the Changyuan section of the Yellow River Basin, and it is expected that after 3 to 5 years, these rare fish stocks will gradually form new populations, which is of great significance for effectively restoring the rare fish populations of the Yellow River and restoring biodiversity. Zhao Daoquan and his team have won the scientific and technological research project of rare aquatic germplasm resources excavation and biodiversity restoration in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, and more rare fish will appear in the Yellow River in the future.