After the fishing ban for 25 years, the seabed desert "greening" geometry

  Our reporter Liu Yuanxu, Wang Jinghuai and Wang Hui

  The sea opened in September, and all boats were launched.

Bohai, which had been quiet for 4 months, became lively again.

  The Bohai Sea is one of the four traditional fishing grounds in my country, which has nurtured tens of thousands of fishermen in Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, and Liaoning.

However, with the improvement of modern fishing capacity, this shallow bay is overwhelmed by the exhaustion of the "sea" and the "No fish in the Bohai Sea" has become an unbearable memory for a generation.

What’s more serious is that “submarine deserts” appear in the shallows of Bohai Bay: clear water, no fish, no shrimps, no aquatic plants, no crabs, no snails, no oyster reefs, and only a dune-like mudflat.

  For this reason, my country has implemented a comprehensive fishing moratorium since 1995, and the moratorium has been gradually extended from three months to four months.

When opening the sea, the reporter visited fishermen, enterprises and marine experts in many places in Tianjin and Hebei to learn about the changes in the "underwater world" in the past 25 years?

What is the "greening" of the submarine desert?

  "Fishing for 4 months, fishing for 30 days"?

  On September 1, my country's offshore fishing was closed.

At 12 noon that day, the fishing boat in the Binhai New Area of ​​Tianjin drove to the sea at full power.

  The suspension of fishing plays an important role in the recovery of fishery resources in the Bohai Sea.

From the start of the fishing moratorium on May 1 to the National Fish Release Day on June 6 and World Oceans Day on June 8 are the main time periods for restocking and releasing.

According to statistics from the Tianjin Municipal Agriculture Committee, during this period, Tianjin coordinated various funds to release more than 1.5 billion units of fish, shrimp, crab, and shellfish in the Bohai Bay and important inland fishery waters.

On the morning of June 6 alone, more than 500,000 units of Chinese prawns, semi-smooth tongue soles, Songjiang perch, big long scorpionfish, Xu's scorpionfish, jellyfish, etc. were released to the Bohai Bay.

  Guo Biao, an expert from the Tianjin Fisheries Research Institute who is in charge of the enhancement and release work, said that the monitoring and evaluation of the release effect for many years has shown that the number and types of catches have increased year by year, and the effect of the enhancement and release on the recovery of fishery resources and the improvement of water quality and environment Increasingly appear.

"If there is no annual increase and release, the Bohai Sea fishermen will have no shrimp to catch."

  However, many fishermen in Tianjin and Hebei reported to reporters that only in terms of catches, the results of the fishing moratorium were soon finished.

"According to the experience in recent years, the catch in the first month after the sea was opened increased significantly, about two or three times the amount before the fishing moratorium, but by October, the catch fell significantly, and soon fell to the level before the moratorium. "The fishermen in many fishing villages in Tianjin and Hebei have this feeling.

  "No matter how fast fish and shrimp grow, there is no boat speed. No matter how many fish are released, there are not as many fishing boats." Han Guilai, a fisherman in Laoting County, Tangshan City, has been fishing for more than 20 years. He has seen fewer and fewer fish in the Bohai Bay. Fishing boats are getting bigger and bigger.

  He recalled that around 2000, the local fishing boats were mostly 17-meter wooden boats with a power of about 80 horsepower, and there were only more than 40 fishing nets on a boat.

Nowadays, it is basically a 40-meter iron boat with a power of 1,000 horsepower and 80 fishing nets. The area of ​​each net has expanded to about three times the original.

  "But in 2000, fishermen could catch more than 2,000 catties of Pippi shrimp on a trip to the sea, and now it is a few hundred catties." Han Gui said.

  Some common fish species are also out of sight.

Tangshan Ocean Ranch Industrial Co., Ltd. has established more than 4,000 acres of ocean pastures in the waters near Tangshan, which has become a natural observation station for observing marine life.

He Rongda, a staff member of the company’s fishing team, said that in 2016, we still saw one or two catties of economic fish species soles, black snappers, etc., but not one this year, and the catch dropped from two to three hundred catties a day. To twenty or thirty catties.

  Liu Kuanhai, “Boss Boss” in Dashentang Village, Zhaishang Street, Binhai New District, Tianjin, and Yang Baoli, Chairman of the Beitang Marine Fisheries Association of Tanggu, Binhai New District, Tianjin, and others also expressed concern about the decrease in fishery resources in the Bohai Sea: “Octopus caught in the past felt bad luck. Now everything that can be caught is good." "Common Bohai hairtail is also difficult to catch."

  "Submarine desert" is there, and marine life "delivery room" is gone

  The Bohai Sea has the Yellow River, Haihe River, Liaohe River and other rivers flowing into the sea. The confluence of fresh water makes it one of the four traditional fishing grounds in my country.

In particular, the coastal areas are rich in seagrass, which is a "birth house" for marine species such as fish.

However, in recent years, "deserts" have appeared on this seabed.

  A submarine video taken in the sea near Tangshan City provided by Tangshan Ocean Ranch Industrial Co., Ltd. shows that there is nothing but sediment under the pale blue water surface, and the seabed ripples formed by the current are endless like sand dunes.

"There is no seaweed on the seabed, no oyster reef, and rarely see marine life." Zhang Yunling, general manager of the company, said that this situation is not uncommon in the Bohai Sea offshore area.

  The seabed desert is one of the evil consequences of overfishing.

Since the beginning of this year, many batches of illegal ships equipped with clam blowing pumps have "ploughed the sea" along the coastline.

"This kind of ship first sucks the bottom sediment into the net with a water pump, leaves shellfish, fish and shrimp after filtering, and ploughs the bottom like a plow. The bottom ecology is basically destroyed, which seriously affects the migration of fish and spawning." Tianjin City Wang Liping, head of the Fishery Administration and Fishing Port Supervision and Management Office, introduced.

  Experts such as Gao Huanxin from the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Guo Biao from the Tianjin Fisheries Research Institute bluntly stated that after a three-year comprehensive control campaign in the Bohai Sea, land-based pollution and other issues have been given full attention, and the quality of the Bohai Sea has been significantly improved.

However, problems such as overfishing began to become prominent and became the main and direct cause of threats to the biodiversity of the Bohai Sea.

  Bian Xiaodong, associate researcher of the Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, and others found that the fishing intensity in the Bohai Sea has increased by nearly 40 times since 1950.

Under the high fishing pressure, the early replenishment capacity of fish resources in the Bohai Sea declined sharply compared with the 1980s, and the number density of species decreased during the year and season.

  The Bohai Sea fish school research released by the Key Laboratory of Marine Fisheries and Sustainable Development of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in 2018 shows that based on the monthly survey data from 1982 to 1983, the current number of fish eggs is only 1/2 of that at that time About, the abundance of resources is less than 1/10 of the time.

Some seafood wholesalers said that the authentic local saury that was common in the market in Dalian is basically invisible now.

  How to restore the "green water and green mountains under the sea"?

  This year is the final year of the action plan for the comprehensive management of the Bohai Sea.

The reporter visited and learned that in recent years, my country has vigorously promoted the comprehensive treatment of the Bohai Sea, and has achieved positive results in land-based pollution, sea pollution, and coastline protection.

Experts call for further attention to the protection of marine biodiversity and strengthen the restoration of the seabed ecology on this basis.

  Gao Huanxin's research found that repairing seabed deserts through ocean pastures and other methods can increase the total biomass by about 30 times.

At present, my country has explored the successful commercial operation of marine ranches. Experts suggest vigorously promote the commercial operation of marine ranches with submarine ecological restoration as the core goal to stimulate the capital market to invest in marine protection.

On this basis, companies can organize coastal fishermen to implement moderate and planned fishing.

  Many experts also put forward the idea of ​​pilot fishing quota system.

The fishing quota system is a management method that rationally allocates the catch share based on the maximum catch of various fishery resources and the fishing capacity. It is practiced in the United States, New Zealand, Russia and other countries.

  Zhang Yunling and others believe that as my country’s only inland sea, conditions can be created to implement quota system pilots in specific areas and specific periods, and gradually guide fishermen to adapt to the total amount of marine resource fishing.

"The Bohai Sea is a closed sea area. At present, my country has achieved a thorough understanding of fishing boats in neighboring provinces, and there is a certain foundation for the implementation of the quota system."

  More importantly, the Bohai Sea biodiversity indicators will be included in the next Bohai Sea governance assessment system.

At present, the "hard indicators" of my country's Bohai Sea governance mainly include sea water quality, water quality of river sections that enter the sea, land sewage outlets, wetland area, and coastline length.

Experts suggest that in the future, indicators reflecting biodiversity can be included in the assessment system, and environmental governance and ecological restoration can be unified, so that the "green water and mountains on the seabed" can be restored as soon as possible.