Anchovy is a typical representative of traditional Freshwater fish in China, known as the "King of Fish", and has been a superior tribute to the imperial court since ancient times in the Jiangnan region. Anchovies, along with Yangtze River knifefish and puffer fish, are known as the "Three Fresh Yangtze Rivers" and are well-known at home and abroad.
In China, the anchovy produced in the Yangtze River Basin is the most prestigious and the historical production is also the highest. In addition to the Yangtze River, the Qiantang River and the Pearl River were also the main production areas of wild anchovies, represented by the anchovies of the Fuchun River and the anchovies of the Xijiang River respectively. The anchovy in these three major production areas is tender and delicious, and it is a rare aquatic treasure and is well received by the market.
Anchovies
Today, none of the wild anchovies in the three major water systems have been spared, and all of them have disappeared. Among them, the Qiantang River anchovy was difficult to find in 1970, the Yangtze River anchovy disappeared in the 1990s, and the Pearl River anchovy went to a desperate situation at the beginning of this century. The survival crisis of anchovies has aroused the great concern of domestic experts and scholars, artificial breeding is imminent, and a rally with time has begun.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="4" > "same destination" of Sanjiang anchovies</h1>
Anchovies are mainly distributed in the coastal waters of China, from the Bohai Sea to the South China Sea, there are wild populations, and the inland rivers that connect with these seas are important spawning grounds for anchovies.
In the 1970s and 1980s, anchovies formed spectacular fish floods every year during their migration, and fishermen had already laid a net on the way for fish to breed. At its peak, there were more than 20,000 mature anchovy parents in a single anchovy spawning ground in the Ganjiang River, with a size of about 2 to 4 kilograms, and local fishermen could easily obtain considerable catches.
According to the Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute, the catch of anchovies was once as high as 1574 tons in the 1970s, and from 1979 onwards, the catch of anchovies gradually declined, and in the 1980s it remained between 12 and 192 tons. Since 1986, the anchovy of the Yangtze River with the largest population has been unable to form a fish flood, and the anchovy of the Qiantang River has been extinct for many years, and the anchovy in the Pearl River can barely maintain a certain production.
Normally, a male anchovy takes at least 3 years to mature and a female takes 4 years. Therefore, once broodstock are overfished, it will take a long time for the population size to recover again. Whether in the Yangtze River, Qiantang River or Pearl River, the overfishing phenomenon of anchovies is very common, and many fishermen have exhausted their nets regardless of whether they are big fish or small fish, and wild resources have inevitably declined.
Yangtze River fishermen fish during the flood season
For example, at the mouth of the Pearl River, local fishermen have always had a special way of working: weaving small nets into 400 to 500 meters of "beach edge poppy". At high tide, the juveniles of anchovies and other small fish are caught alive in large quantities, and what is more fatal is that this operation can be implemented more than 100 times a year, and the loss of juvenile fish exceeds 130,000, which seriously affects the replenishment of the descendants of anchovies in the Pearl River, resulting in a sharp decline in resources.
In Hukou County, Jiujiang, Jiangxi, many fishermen also use dense nets to catch fish, where anchovy fry weigh as much as 7.74 tons in a year; at an aquatic products purchase station in Jingjiang, Jiangsu Province, about 3 centimeters of anchovy fry have been purchased for 22.7 tons. These precious fry resources do not have much economic value for fishermen, and almost all of them are "ecological penalties" issued by blind fishing.
Ganjiang
During the same period, a large number of hydropower dams were built in inland rivers, and water pollution became more and more serious, and many factors combined to cause anchovy populations in the three major rivers to fall into crisis.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="28" artificial reproduction of anchovies > is a step too late</h1>
The most effective way to save an endangered species is to break through artificial breeding, and anchovies are no exception. As early as the early 1980s, the Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute and scientific research institutions in Jiangxi, Jiangsu and other places set up a special research team to carry out artificial breeding experiments of anchovies in the Xiajiang River and Nanchang.
In 1982, researchers fished a certain number of anchovy parents in spawning grounds in the Xia River section, and successfully bred more than 30,000 juvenile anchovies through artificial insemination, which caused a huge sensation in China at that time. However, due to the constraints of technical experience, the survival rate of artificially bred anchovies is not high, and it is basically nine deaths to be released into the Yangtze River.
In 1986, wild anchovies in the Yangtze River fell into a life-and-death turning point, and their resources were severely degraded. The following year, China's fishery department announced that the fishing of anchovies was banned in the Yangtze River Basin for a period of 3 years. Unfortunately, monitoring results after 3 years show that anchovy resources are not only not recovering, but are becoming less and less.
The main reason is that the barrier of hydropower dams has brought "hard injuries". After the completion of the cascade power station in the upper reaches of the Ganjiang River, the anchovy populations that come to breed every summer are blocked under the dam, and can only be assisted by artificial capture, which is far less effective than natural reproduction. Over time, the range of anchovy spawning grounds is getting smaller and smaller, and naturally there are fewer and fewer offspring.
Xiajiang Hydropower Station
On the other hand, the artificial cultivation of anchovies is still in full swing, and the time is becoming more and more urgent. In 1990, the Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute carried out artificial breeding of Pearl River anchovies domesticated in ponds with initial success, but there was also a problem of low survival rate of offspring.
The result of the experiment is that artificially bred anchovies continue to die, and it is difficult to replace wild juvenile fish, even if they are released into the Ganjiang River. After that, the team fell into a dilemma that could not be solved by technology: anchovies for artificial breeding were becoming increasingly difficult to find, and many professional fishermen had not caught a single anchovy for years. In the end, the related research had to be terminated.
In 1998, fishermen in Jiangsu Province caught a 1.5-kilogram anchovy during the fish flood season – and since then, no trace of anchovies has been found. Now it seems that if the anchovy populations in the Yangtze and Pearl Rivers can persist for another 5 to 10 years, the problem of low offspring survival rates may be solved. Unfortunately, the artificial breeding experiments of more than ten years before and after have finally slowed down a step.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="29" > "grafting" from abroad is the last hope? </h1>
China is the most important distribution area of anchovies, but in addition to China, there are also a certain anchovy populations in the coastal waters of other countries, including Vietnam. Nowadays, the anchovies in the three major rivers in China have disappeared, so will "grafting" from abroad be the last hope of anchovies?
Distribution range of anchovies
There are very few records of migratory anchovies in Vietnam, but there are records in the Global Fish Database that breeding anchovy colonies have been found in the Andaman Sea, and fishermen in Phuket (Thailand's largest island) have collected two anchovy specimens. After research, the two specimens and the Chinese anchovy are the same species.
Various indications show that anchovies still have a certain population base in Southeast Asian countries (Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, etc.), but due to the lack of authoritative species identification, it is difficult to distinguish "true and false anchovies" from the level of molecular biology. Among the many counterfeit anchovies (Mekong anchovies, American herring, long-tailed anchovies, cloud anchovies, etc.), some experts pointed out after identification that the cloud anchovies may be the same species as the Chinese anchovies.
Pictured above are three different species of anchovies on the market
The cloud anchovy is mainly distributed in South and Southeast Asia, and this species currently has no existential crisis and a large population. If this is true, then "grafting" foreign anchovies into the Yangtze or Pearl River basins may be a good way to bring Chinese anchovies back to life.
But the question arises again: even if the two are the same species, due to long-term geographical isolation, there must be certain differences and differentiation in terms of appearance traits and biological learning, will the introduction into the Yangtze River cause new ecological problems? In addition, as an independent geographical population, China's anchovies have their own unique evolution, can foreign anchovies really replace this biological characteristic?
Cloud anchovies
For foreign anchovies, there are still many uncertainties, which need to be further studied, the specific classification status and ecological habits should be clarified, and a rigorous assessment should also be made in ecological safety.
Are there still wild anchovies in the country? Is "grafting" foreign cloud anchovies reliable? In this regard, welcome to leave a message in the comment area to discuss!