Xijiang has been closed to fishing for seven years, and valuable species such as catfish and eel have reappeared in the waters

(Reporter/Pan Deng Correspondent/Chen Kefu) "If it weren't for the experts to help identify, I wouldn't have known it was a catfish." In the early morning of July 1, fishermen Wu Ashu and his son came to the waters of the Wuzhou section of the Xijiang River to start their first fishing after the lifting of the ban on fishing in the Xijiang River this year, and the harvest was abundant.

Fishing nets were dropped in the waters in front of the Cheung Chau Water Conservancy Hub Dam, and within a few hours, Wu Ashu harvested a total of more than 30 kilograms of silver carp, bighead fish and eel, with an average weight of more than 2 kilograms per fish. What made Wu Ah Shu even more excited was that he had also caught a fish species that had not been seen for more than a decade, weighing 5 kilograms. Later, it was identified by the staff of the fishery administration and law enforcement department as a catfish.

After the ban on fishing, the fish became more and fatter. Wu Ashu said that before the ban on fishing, only more than ten kilograms of fish could be hit a day, and many weighed less than one kilogram. The reporter learned that many fishermen caught more than 6 kilograms of eels on the first day of the lifting of the ban, as well as economic fish with market prices of up to more than 30 yuan per kilogram such as catfish and bone fish.

Su Yabin, deputy commander of the Wuzhou Municipal Fishery Administration Law Enforcement Brigade, has long been concerned about the development of fishery resources in the Xijiang River, and he told reporters that catfish are valuable fish species living in the Yangtze River system, and there are also a small number of distributions in the Red Water River Basin in the upper reaches of the Xijiang River. Due to the high water quality requirements of catfish and the overfishing of fishermen, wild catfish have been rare since the 1970s.

The return of catfish is a testimony to the improvement of water quality in the Xijiang River. It is understood that with the consent of the State Council, the Pearl River Basin, including the Wuzhou section of the Xijiang River, began to ban fishing in 2011, and from this year, the fishing ban time was adjusted to 00:00 on March 1 to 24:00 on June 30, an increase of two months over previous years. The Xijiang, Xunjiang, Guijiang, Beiliuhe and Maojiang rivers under the jurisdiction of Wuzhou are all included in the scope of fishing ban.

According to Chen Yongjia, head of the Wuzhou Municipal Agricultural Administrative Comprehensive Law Enforcement Detachment, Wuzhou City, where the three rivers converge and are rich in water resources, are distributed with more than 20 species of national aquatic germplasm resources conservation areas, are the largest spawning sites for eels in the Pearl River water system, and are also one of the national key protected or endangered rare fish growth activities and spawning grounds such as Chinese sturgeon, flower eel, anchovy, long-rump fish, etc. After the implementation of the fishing ban, the fish species that were not common before were gradually restored to dominant populations. The Wuzhou section of the Xijiang Wuzhou Section National Aquatic Germplasm Resources Conservation Area has become the largest natural spawning and breeding farm for Guangdong bream (commonly known as lace) fish and eels in the Pearl River Basin.