China News Service, February 9th (Shao Wanyun) Finless porpoises are playing, birds are cruising, and ships are slowly passing by... Jiangyin in spring is harmonious and pleasant.

The "Smiling Angel" finless porpoise "likes" Jiangyin's ecology with their appearance, which also confirms the good ecological benefits brought about by the improvement of Jiangyin's ecological environment over the years.

  People in Jiangyin who have lived as neighbors with Jiang all their lives have indescribable feelings for finless porpoises.

The older generation of Jiangyin people are no strangers to finless porpoises. Standing by the river, they can often see dark but extremely cute figures. In the rippling waves, finless porpoises stick their heads out of the water in a friendly manner, opening their slender mouths, as if Laughing all the time.

  In the past, factors such as illegal fishing, water pollution, and illegal sand mining led to a decrease in the number of finless porpoises, making it increasingly difficult for people to find finless porpoises.

Now, the finless porpoise has returned to the vision of Jiangyin people.

What efforts have Jiangyin people made over the years to bring back the finless porpoise?

What is the story between finless porpoise and Jiangyin?

Data map: Aerial photography of the Jiangyin section of the Yangtze River.

Photo by Zhang Xian

Appear

Full of joy

  The finless porpoise is the flagship species of the Yangtze River ecosystem. It is known as the "smiling angel" because of its simple and honest appearance and slightly raised corners of the mouth.

  On an ordinary afternoon, several employees of China Shipbuilding Chengxi Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. located in Xiagang Street passed by the river and found a strange-looking fish in the water. After a closer look, it turned out to be a "legendary" fish. Finless porpoise!

  "Ouch! Ouch! It's coming again, it's coming again!" Everyone present seemed to see a big star, and while cheering and excited, they couldn't wait to take out their mobile phones and start shooting.

  "I am a native of Jiangyin. I have been in the factory for more than 20 years, and this is the first time I see it!" Mr. Yu, an old employee of CSSC Chengxi Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., couldn't hide his excitement. "We are by the Yangtze River every day, and we can clearly feel the Now, the Yangtze River is changing every day!"

  The finless porpoise is known as the "giant panda in the water". According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, there were 2,700 finless porpoises in the Yangtze River in 1991, 1,800 finless porpoises in 2006, and 1,040 finless porpoises in 2012.

In 2021, the "National Key Protected Wildlife List" will upgrade the Yangtze finless porpoise to a national first-class protected wild animal.

  What is gratifying is that in recent years, finless porpoises have appeared every year in the Jiangyin section of the Yangtze River, which cannot be separated from the dedicated protection of every Jiangyin person.

guard

ten year agreement

  If the lake is exhausted and fished, there will be no fish to catch, and if you rest and recuperate, there will be endless life.

  In the past, due to overfishing, food reduction, shipping, water pollution, illegal sand mining, etc., the living environment of the finless porpoise was affected, and the number of finless porpoises has been decreasing day by day.

  In order to save the aquatic biodiversity of the Yangtze River, in January 2019, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and other three ministries and commissions jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for Banning Fishing in Key Waters of the Yangtze River Basin and Establishing a Compensation System", which fully triggered the "ten-year fishing ban" in the Yangtze River Basin. horn.

From January 1, 2021, key waters such as "one river, two lakes and seven rivers" in the Yangtze River Basin will officially start a ten-year comprehensive ban on fishing.

  In the past two years, through measures such as compensation, subsidy, and resettlement, 111,000 fishing boats were dismantled and 231,000 fishermen returned to land. This is the beginning of a historical turning point in which "people retreat and fish enter", and rare and endangered species gradually recover and return.

  To reshape the relationship between "Jiang" and "people", Jiangyin people are naturally indispensable in this ten-year agreement.

  The fishermen who used to fish on the Yangtze River in Jiangyin all switched to production at the end of 2019.

Many of them even formed a full-time "fishing protection team" spontaneously, from "fisherman" to "fisherman", to stop illegal fishing activities, report or rescue injured aquatic wild protected animals in a timely manner.

Data map: Yangtze finless porpoise Nanjing finless porpoise aquatic life protection association

Change

The ecology continues to improve

  In addition to "no fishing on the water, no selling in the market, no restaurants, and no food for the masses", Jiangyin has accelerated shoreline improvement, ecological restoration, and environmental governance, and successively built Yaogang Yangtze River Ecological Wetland, Taohuagang Yangtze River Wetland Protection Community, etc., The water ecological environment of the Yangtze River has shown a trend of improvement year by year and continues to improve.

  According to the fishery administration department of Jiangyin City, in the past few years, they have been able to observe the emergence of finless porpoises every year in the Jiangyin section of the Yangtze River. At the same time, more and more Jiangyin citizens have reaped the joy of discovering finless porpoises.

  In October 2021, Mr. Wu, a citizen, took his children to Ebizui Park. When he was looking at the river from Tingtao Pavilion, he suddenly found a finless porpoise about 20 to 30 meters away from the river.

  In December 2019, Mr. Wu, a winter swimming enthusiast, photographed two finless porpoises playing in the water on the riverside to the west of the water plant in Ebizui Park.

  ...

  If the road is obstructed and long, it will come soon; if you walk without stopping, the future can be expected.

Jiangyin, which was built and prospered by the river, continues to guard the smile of the finless porpoise.

(over)