Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon caught in scientific research The official website of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences
The Dadu River originates in the southern foothills of the Goluo Mountains in the Animaqing Mountains in Yushu Prefecture, Qinghai Province, flows through the Western Sichuan Plateau and other places, and flows into the Min River in Leshan City, Sichuan Province, with a total length of 1,062 kilometers, making it the largest tributary of the Min River. Due to the abundant hydropower resources of the Dadu River, a number of large and medium-sized hydropower stations such as Gongzui and Tongjiezi have been built in the upper reaches and tributaries of the Dadu River.
On May 2, 2018, the official website of malkang Municipal Government of Aba Prefecture, Sichuan Province, released the news that the Foot Foot Foot River Bara Power Station Project developed by Sichuan Zumuzu River Basin Hydropower Development Co., Ltd. was officially started after passing a series of reviews including environmental impact assessment, with a planned total investment of 815553 million yuan and a total installed capacity of 746,000 kilowatts, and is expected to be fully completed in December 2022.
The former Ministry of Environmental Protection clearly pointed out in the approval document on the environmental impact assessment of the Bala Power Station that "the headwaters of the Dadu River, where the Bala Hydropower Station is located, is an important habitat for the Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon, and the construction of the project will flood the 2 Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon spawning grounds in the reservoir area, which will interfere with the 2 Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon spawning grounds downstream of the tailwater of the plant, and the suitable spawning habitat of sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon will be further compressed."
Environmental protection volunteers told reporters that they believe that the construction of the Bala Power Station will have a serious impact on the "giant panda in the water" Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon and other rare fish with the Zumuzu River as its habitat, and the role of a series of measures such as breeding and stocking and planning habitat protection areas required in the environmental impact assessment report of the Bala Power Station still needs to be further verified.
Upstream reporters found in the interview that the domestic academic circles generally believe that the construction of many hydropower stations has caused a huge and even decisive impact on the living environment of the Dadu River, including the state-level protected fish Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon, the Sichuan Provincial Protected Fish Heavy-mouthed Split-belly Fish, the Bluestone Climbing Bass, and the Chinese Catfish, and how to balance the development and protection of ecological diversity is a huge test facing the current hydropower construction.
Underwater video observation of the juvenile salmon of Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences official website map
The last home of the "giant panda in the water" in the upper reaches of the Dadu River
Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon belongs to the salmonid order Salmon family Zheluo salmon genus, also known as Sichuan Zheluo salmon, Bushi Zheluo salmon, tiger Jia fish, etc., Sichuan locally called it catfish. The main distribution of Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon flows through the rivers of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Qinghai Provinces, due to multiple factors such as man-made and environmental factors, it has destroyed the habitat and spawning grounds of Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon, and its natural resources and distribution area have decreased significantly, and have disappeared into the traditional distribution areas such as the Dujiangyan section of the Minjiang River where it was first discovered.
Existing domestic studies have shown that Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon is a rare cold-water fish that remains inland during the glacial period, with high living environment requirements, inhabiting the foothill streams at an altitude of 700-1000 meters, mostly shaded by mountains on both sides, narrow rivers, rapid water flow, high oxygen content and low water temperature. Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon has been listed in the National Second Class Protected Animal and China Endangered Animal Red Book, and has been listed as a critically endangered level by the World Conservation Union.
Dr. Wu Jinming of the Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, who has a long-term study of Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon, told upstream news reporters that the preciousness of Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon lies in the scarcity of the number and its position at the top of the food chain. Sichuan-Shaanxi Salmon is a fierce predatory fish, up to 2 meters long, it is a typical high predator in river or stream ecosystems, such as tigers and leopards in terrestrial ecosystems, and its population decline means that the entire aquatic ecosystem has undergone great changes.
Environmental volunteer Shao Wenjie told upstream reporters that at the end of August 2018, he accidentally learned about the construction of the Bala Hydropower Station, and the environmental impact assessment report of the Bala Power Station clearly pointed out that the reservoir area of the hydropower station will flood the two spawning sites of the critically endangered species Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon. Shao Wenjie is worried that the intercepted Dadu River will flood two spawning grounds at the same time, which is equivalent to letting the Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon, which lays eggs and gives birth in the shallow water basin, lose their last home, "the endangered giant panda in the water, and the last home is about to be destroyed by the hydropower station." ”
In September, Shao wenjie and his companions visited the construction site of the Bala Hydropower Station in Ribu Township, Malkang City, Aba Prefecture. After setting out from Malkang, the capital of Aba Prefecture, they found that the Azumuzu River Basin Hydropower Development Co., Ltd. has begun to enter the construction site, the trees and mountains around the dam site have been preliminarily cleaned up, the diversion tunnels for intercepting and power generation have begun to take shape, and the modern engineering department base and the flat and easy to walk special road have modernized the town of Ribe Township in the deep mountains.
On the way to the Bala Hydropower Station, Shao Wenjie and his party found that on several tributaries of the Dadu River, the power station was built on the abundant amount of water, which they believed had a huge impact on the environment in which the Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon lived.
Upstream News noted that on the banks of the Dadu River near the Bala Hydropower Station, there are several release sites for salmon in Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Zheluo, which have been set up by hydropower construction units.
Shao Wenjie explained that this is the place where the hydropower construction unit carries out "breeding and stocking" to make up for the impact of hydropower construction on fish such as Sichuan and Shaanxi Zheluo salmon, with the hope that through human influence, the population of this rare fish in the Dadu River Basin will be increased. ”
Cliff-like disappearing habitat of Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon
The article "Special Research on the Distribution and Habitat of Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo Salmon in the Dadu River Basin" written by Ru Huijun and Li Yunfeng of the Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Fisheries shows that the possible distribution areas of the upper reaches of the Min River, the upper reaches of the Dadu River and the tributaries of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon have been difficult to find for many years, and from 1950 to 2012, the distribution range of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon in the Dadu River Basin has shrunk sharply, and the habitat loss rate is as high as 91.4%.
According to the research of scholars such as Ru Huijun of the Chinese Academy of Fisheries Sciences, the habitat loss rate of Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon has declined off a cliff, which is related to the strict requirements for habitat of Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon. Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon belongs to the alpine cold-water carnivorous fish, its entire life history, the requirements for the environment are not the same, but they are very harsh. Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon prefer deep water depth, rapid water flow, clear and transparent water quality, the bottom of the riverbed is usually coarse sand and gravel, the width of the river varies, and the river form is interspersed with beaches. When the salmon lay their eggs, the water temperature needs to be between 4 and 10 degrees. During spawning, adults migrate short distances, and the length of the passage is traced from the main stream to the tributaries to spawn, and the migration channel needs to be unimpeded. Juvenile fish are limited by their swimming ability and food type, and the flow rate suitable for their habitat is smaller than that of adult fish.
Xie Ping, institute of hydrobiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told upstream reporters that he had elaborated on the impact of dams on river organisms in an article titled "The Biodiversity Crisis of the Yangtze River".
Xie Ping believes that barrage damming will inevitably change the hydrological characteristics of the dam area and upstream and downstream, including flood pulse patterns, sediment processes, water temperature processes, etc., which will affect the erosion of riverbeds and the relationship between rivers (rivers) and lakes, etc., and may significantly change the communities of aquatic animals and plants inhabiting them, which may bring fatal consequences to some aquatic animals that are highly dependent on river continuums or river and lake complex systems. The construction of the water conservancy project in the upper reaches of the Dadu River is self-evident in the living environment of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon in this section of the river.
The most important reason for the shrinking of the habitat loss distribution area of Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon is that in addition to the disappearance of suitable habitat conditions caused by hydropower development in the river basin, the damage caused by human activities such as sand mining and road construction along the river is also widespread. A 2015 study by the Chinese Academy of Fisheries showed that sand and gravel were mined in a disorderly manner in the river channel, blocking and silting the river channel. According to the survey, as many as 101 sand mining and processing sites in Malkang City are widely distributed in the four river basins of the Somo River, the Foot Foot Foot River, the Chu Si Jia River and the Chabao River. At the same time, the increase in the construction of roads along the river, a large number of mud and stones dumped into the river from time to time, which led to changes or destruction of the habitat conditions necessary for the habitat of sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon, and the distribution area of Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon continued to shrink, which also led to a sharp decrease in its resources and tended to be endangered.
Since 1998, the Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon has become extinct, and people have hardly seen it from the wild.
In September 2012, He Guangsheng, a farmer in Xinglong Village, Taibaihe Town, Taibai County, Shaanxi Province, found 19 suspected endangered rare fish "Sichuan Shaanxi Zheluo Salmon" adult fish in the Taibai River, a tributary of the upper reaches of the Han River, and the Taibai County Aquatic Wildlife Conservation Station invited the Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences to conduct an appraisal. Through identification, it was confirmed that the 19 samples captured by the Taibai River were the national second-level key protected wild animal "Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo Salmon", which was the largest group found in the country in the past 20 years, and was also discovered again after 15 years of extinction in Shaanxi. Based on this finding, the scientists artificially bred 2,000 juvenile fish.
The Upper Reaches of the Dadu River set up the Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo Salmon Release Point Shao Wenjie Figure
Artificial breeding and stocking measures at the Bala Power Station
Due to the impact of hydropower construction and other activities on key protected fish species, including Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon, the construction party of the Bala Power Station has also made efforts to minimize the impact on the ecological environment.
The construction of the Bala power station, Fangzu Muzu River Basin Hydropower Development Co., Ltd., first thought of artificial breeding of Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon. In 2014, the company said that the artificial breeding technology research of Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon has achieved phased results, and the domestication of migration has been successful, and artificial breeding has been successfully carried out in the Taibai River Basin of Shaanxi Province, "which brings hope for reversing the current situation of the frequent extinction of Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon, and carrying out the resource growth and population recovery of Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon."
In July 2017, the Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences announced that they had successfully artificially bred Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon in Malkang City.
The upstream news reporter learned that in the declaration project and the later environmental impact assessment stage of the Bala Power Station, it was delayed for nearly 10 years due to the protection of fish such as Sichuan and Shaanxi Zheluo salmon.
On September 1, 2015, the "Report on the Overall Plan for the Protection of Fish Habitats in the Upper Reaches of the Dadu River" was approved by the Sichuan Provincial People's Government in document "Chuanfu Letter [2015] No. 188". According to the official website of Zumuzu River Basin Hydropower Development Co., Ltd., the planning and environmental impact assessment report of the Dadu River Basin will successfully breed and release sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon as a precondition for the development of the Zumuzu River Basin power station, "undoubtedly setting a bottleneck for the development of the river basin power station, if this requirement is followed, the development process of the power station will be seriously delayed."
In the relevant information in 2015, Zumuzu River Basin Hydropower Development Co., Ltd. said that they creatively proposed a plan of "habitat protection and the successful artificial breeding and stocking of Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon", "Through active consultation and communication, the plan has been recognized by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and environmental protection and fishery experts, and a feasible habitat protection implementation plan has been proposed, which is reported to the Sichuan Provincial People's Government for approval." In order to promote the construction of the Bara and Dawei power stations in the Footmuzu River Basin, Zumuzuzu River Basin Hydropower Development Co., Ltd. carried out research on the artificial breeding technology of Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon, and conducted a study on the planning of "Habitat Protection of Fish Habitats such as Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo Salmon in the Upper Reaches of the Dadu River", which was jointly reported to the Sichuan Provincial Government by the Sichuan Provincial Environmental Protection Department, the Sichuan Provincial Department of Agriculture and the Sichuan Provincial Energy Bureau in July 2015, and was approved on September 1, 2015.
Zumuzu River Basin Hydropower Development Co., Ltd. believes that the approval of the above-mentioned "Planning Report" has broken through the pre-conditions for the EIA of the construction of the Bara and Dawei power stations, cleared the obstacles for the EIA review of the power station project, and "also laid a solid foundation for the approval of the power station".
The former Ministry of Environmental Protection clearly pointed out in the EIA approval document of the Bala Power Station published in January 2017 that the construction party of the power station should prepare the implementation plan of the "Master Plan for the Protection of Fish Habitats in the Upper Reaches of the Dadu River" and shall not implement the interception without the approval of the Sichuan Provincial Environmental Protection Department. In addition to planning a habitat protection area suitable for the survival of Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon in a different place, the environmental impact assessment approval of the former Ministry of Environmental Protection also clearly requires that the power station construction party should accelerate the promotion of artificial breeding and stocking technology to achieve a comprehensive breakthrough, build a foot foot foot river fish breeding and stocking station near the bala owner camp, form operation management and technical capabilities, undertake the tasks of breeding, protection and rescue of rare fish such as Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon, the total release scale of 351,200 fish / year at this stage, and recently release Sichuan Shaanxi Zheluo salmon, Qikou split-bellied fish and other fish.
In addition to the two measures of breeding and stocking and formulating a habitat protection plan, the approval of the former Ministry of Environmental Protection also stipulates that the owner of the Bala power station should use the fish lift and the fish collection system to achieve two-way fishing up and down; during the initial water storage period, the power station should discharge ecological flow through the ecological water supply hole and the flood release hole, and create a man-made flood process for a period of 10 days per month during the concentrated fish spawning period from May to September.
Zumuzu River Basin Hydropower Development Co., Ltd. wrote in the "Environmental Impact Assessment Report" of the Bala Power Station, "Although the Bala Hydropower Station will have a certain impact on the distribution and activity of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon, under the premise that the planned habitat is effectively protected, the Balaku District can provide bait, fattening and wintering places for the Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon that breed in the reserve." ”
In April 2018, the Sichuan Provincial Development and Reform Commission officially approved the Foot Foot River Bala Hydropower Station Project. On May 2, 2018, the construction of The Bara Hydropower Station officially began.
Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon fossil Zhou Batu
The dilemma of hydropower plant development and ecological protection
Dr. Wu Jinming of the Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences has many years of research experience in rare fish living in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River such as Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon, and told the upstream news reporter that he did not understand the specific measures such as breeding and stocking and the establishment of protected areas in different places required in the environmental impact assessment report of the Bala Hydropower Station, but from the current situation of the protection of Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon, the effectiveness of these measures needs to be verified.
Dr. Wu Jinming introduced that the artificial breeding of Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon has made many successful attempts, and it is currently possible to solve the early process of insemination and hatching, but there are still technical obstacles to large-scale production of fry and breeding to the stage of juvenile fish. Artificial breeding and stocking should release larger sized seedlings, and their survival rate in the wild is relatively guaranteed. Therefore, to achieve the protection of Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon through breeding and stocking, there is still a need for public relations in technology, mainly the technology of large-scale cultivation of seedlings.
For means such as habitat planning, Dr. Wu Jinming said that not only for Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon, but also for any other species, in the absence of environmental damage, in situ conservation is definitely better than ex situ conservation. If the environment is damaged, in the case that the relevant mitigation measures are not enough to meet the survival of the species, ex situ conservation measures should be required, but the scientific assessment should be made in advance whether the migratory destination can meet the survival of the species. Ex situ protection can only be regarded as a remedy.
After the official start of construction of the Bala power station, Shao Wenjie and other environmental volunteers raised objections to the construction of the power station.
Shao Wenjie told upstream news that as the top species in the fish food chain of the Dadu River, the Requirements for spawning habitats are extremely strict, and the Marco River in the submerged area of the power station is the last and only hope to save the Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon, whether the remedial measures proposed by the construction party of the Bala Power Station can be effective is unknown, and whether the species of the extremely dangerous level of Sichuan-Shaanxi Zheluo salmon is extinct or not cannot be determined by these experimental measures.
Xie Ping, a researcher at the Institute of Hydrobiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that dams are like a double-edged sword, the advantages and disadvantages are prominent, its ability to benefit human beings such as power generation, water storage, irrigation, etc. is unparalleled, but the blow to some species living in rivers is also devastating, and the two are irreconcilable.
Cao Wenxuan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences who has long studied the survival and development of fish, proposed in an article in August this year that the scale of water elevator-level development in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River needs to be drawn on the premise of the survival safety of rare aquatic animals and the longevity of important fishery resources such as four major fish, and the ecological red line should be drawn to determine the "degree" of development.
Dr. Wu Jinming of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences expressed the same view to upstream journalists, he believes that the relevant rivers have carried out hydropower development, and if there are relatively clear assessment and prediction results that can prove that ecological remediation measures can effectively protect species, hydropower development can undoubtedly be carried out, and vice versa. Wu Jinming stressed that under the current technical conditions, there are no other options for protecting species in addition to protecting its current habitat, but there are many ways to develop the economy.
Copyright Notice: If copyright issues are involved, please contact the website with proof of ownership