The Yangtze River has been banned for ten years. These changes are related to you and me
"The Yangtze River has a long history and a vast water surface. It is a good water town for freshwater fish to have children and grow up to become talents." The documentary "Talking about the Yangtze River" shot by CCTV in 1983 praised the mother river.
However, in recent decades, due to the comprehensive impact of various human activities, the ecological environment of the Yangtze River Basin has deteriorated rapidly, and the biological integrity index has reached the worst "fish-free" level.
In order to save the aquatic biodiversity of the Yangtze River, on January 1, 2021, the main stream of the Yangtze River, large lakes and important tributaries of the Yangtze River officially began a ten-year comprehensive ban.
111,000 fishing boats and 231,000 fishermen retreated and landed ashore, starting the historical turning point of "people retreating to fish in".
The 2021 “Central No. 1 Document” issued a few days ago clearly proposes to strengthen the conservation of aquatic biological resources, promote the construction of fishery law enforcement capacity focusing on the Yangtze River, ensure the effective implementation of the ten-year ban on fishing, and ensure the resettlement of fishermen.
According to the Party Central Committee’s strategic deployment for the high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, my country’s first special law on river basin protection, the Yangtze River Protection Law, will also be officially implemented from March 1.
Recently, Guangming Daily's Weibo launched an online survey on "What do you care about most about the ten-year ban on fishing in the Yangtze River?
Based on the results of the preliminary investigation and with some of the issues that netizens are most concerned about, our reporter interviewed relevant experts, responsible persons in charge of departments and volunteer representatives.
After the arrest, will our dining table be affected?
In Huaiyang Restaurant, Yangtze River Shad is a famous dish, and it is regarded by many diners as a delicacy because of its tender meat.
"Now that the Yangtze River is completely banned from fishing, is this signature dish gone?" Many people have doubts about this.
"Such worry is a bit redundant, because the Yangtze River shad has been extinct for almost 30 years." Zhou Zhuocheng, an expert from the China Fisheries Association, explained that the Yangtze River shad is a migratory fish. In 1975, the catch reached 1570 tons, but 20 Since the 1980s, its number has declined rapidly, and it has been unable to form a fish flood. After the 1990s, there is no record of catching, which is equivalent to functional extinction.
So, what has always been sold in restaurants?
"The Yangtze River shad is the first of the'Yangtze Three Fresh Products'. In order to maintain profits, the merchants actually use close relatives such as American shad and Southeast Asian cloud shad." Zhou Zhuocheng said that with the decline of the aquatic biological resources of the Yangtze River, this kind of fake and real situation very common.
The fate of the Yangtze River shad is not alone.
According to statistics, the annual natural catch in the Yangtze River Basin has dropped from 427,000 tons in 1954 to less than 100,000 tons in recent years. Even the more common herring, grass carp, silver carp, and bighead carp "four major home fish", their seedlings The number of occurrences has dropped from 129.1 billion in 1965 to more than one billion today.
"In contrast to the decline of fishery resources in the Yangtze River, since the 1950s, the artificial propagation of the'four major home fish' has been successful, and the freshwater aquaculture industry has developed rapidly, and the people's dining table has not been affected." Cao Wenxuan, academician of the Academy of Sciences, introduced that from 2016 to 2019, China’s freshwater aquaculture production was around 30 million tons, with an annual output of about 5 million tons of grass carp, 4 million tons of silver carp, and nearly 3 million tons of bighead carp. "Boiled fish", "Chopped pepper fish head" and other delicacies-"China’s 1.4 billion people consume 9.4 kg of the'four major home fish' per capita per year."
In fact, cheap and good farmed fish cannot do without wild fish.
Cao Wenxuan introduced that the artificially farmed fish in fish ponds are often the offspring of such a few pairs of broodstock. After long-term inbreeding, their genes will degenerate and become prone to diseases. Therefore, wild fish must be used to improve their germplasm resources so that the farmed fish can grow. Get fast and grow well.
"In order for the common people to eat fish longer and eat better fish, we must protect the natural germplasm resource bank of the Yangtze River." Cao Wenxuan emphasized.
"I don't eat fish. Does protecting Yangtze River fish have anything to do with me?" Some netizens have this attitude.
In fact, protecting the Yangtze River fish is not only about the table, but also about the drinking water safety of hundreds of millions of people.
“The service function of the ecosystem is only when the biodiversity is complete. One of the service functions of the Yangtze River ecosystem is the purification of water quality.” Taking Qiandao Lake’s development model of “using fish to control water” as an example, Cao Wenxuan explained, "The algae and other plankton in the lake can absorb the nitrogen, phosphorus and other substances in the water body, and then artificially put a certain amount of silver carp and bighead carp to eat these plankton. In this way, when it enters, there are three types of water. Come out into a class of water."
"I have always appealed to my friends to stop eating wild fish and let the Yangtze River take a breath. Moreover, wild fish will accumulate some toxic and harmful substances in the natural environment, and their safety is not as good as farmed fish." With more than 6 million people. Said Zhou Zhuocheng, the popular science "big V" of Weibo fans.
What about the livelihood of the fishermen after landing?
In the past few years, in order to promote the ten-year ban on fishing, Ma Yi, director of the Yangtze River Basin Fishery Administration Office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, has traveled along the Yangtze River for a long time.
"You may not know that I was the first person to oppose a ten-year ban on fishing." Ma Yi told reporters with a smile. In 2006, after Academician Cao Wenxuan wrote to the former Ministry of Agriculture to recommend a ten-year ban on fishing, he came to the door as soon as possible. Visit, explain the situation and do work to Academician Cao.
"First, what should we do if the fishermen retreat? The number of fishermen we have established is 231,000, but the number of fishermen at the time was far more than that. The resettlement of them after landing was a problem. Second, the river was such a large area. The political and law enforcement agencies were very weak and could not control it at all.” At that time, in Ma Yi's view, although a ten-year ban on fishing was necessary, the conditions were still immature, and people generally couldn't keep up.
“Since the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the ecological protection of the Yangtze River has ushered in a turning point. With the implementation of many important measures, the material and understanding foundations for implementing the 10-year ban on fishing in the Yangtze River have become more and more complete.” Ma Yi said with emotion.
In January 2016, General Secretary Xi Jinping offered a fundamental cure for the governance of the Yangtze River at the symposium on promoting the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt held in Chongqing, and proposed to “work together to protect and avoid large-scale development”; “Document No.” proposed “take the lead in realizing a comprehensive ban on catching in the Yangtze River Basin Aquatic Life Reserve”; in 2018, “Central No. 1 Document” proposed “establishing a compensation system for catching bans in key waters in the Yangtze River Basin”; in 2019, 332 aquatic organisms in the Yangtze River Basin The biological reserve retreats fishing; on January 1, 2021, a ten-year ban on fishing will finally become a reality.
In order to protect the livelihoods of fishermen, as of January 31, 2021, 25.167 billion yuan in compensation subsidies for the ban on fishing and fishing has been put in place; 129,743 people in key waters have been converted (accounting for 99.76% of the base to be converted). There were 171,626 people in social security, and the social security task of retiring fishermen was fully completed.
In Cao Wenxuan's view, the ten-year ban on fishing is not only to protect fish, but also to help fishermen change their production and lifestyles.
"The Yangtze River is'no fish'. To put it more vividly, fishermen can't catch fish with legal large-mesh fishing nets. Only by using illegal methods such as'extreme nets','ecstasy arrays', and electric fish can they catch a little fish. In this way, The Yangtze River fishing industry is like entering a'dead end'."
Song Bin is a native of Jiangbei District, Chongqing.
For more than ten years, he has been fishing while operating a restaurant boat on the river.
As the catering boats opened more and more, Song Bin felt that the Yangtze River had changed. "Disposable tableware floated on the surface of the river from time to time. Not only did the fish catch less and less, it also smelled of diesel."
In 2018, Song Bin responded to the government's call and took the lead in dismantling the catering boat, and opened an old Song's fish restaurant not far from the shore with compensation.
Nowadays, the business of the fish house is not only getting more and more prosperous, four fishermen who retreat like Song Bin have also joined the fish house and have a good life on the shore.
After the Yangtze River was completely banned from fishing, a group of fishermen still chose to stay on the river.
On February 5, 2021, Tian Gang was in the dark. On the surface of Poyang Lake in Hukou County, Jiangxi Province, accompanied by the sound of "sudden" motors, Shu Yinan and his colleagues began a day of work, monitoring the number of Yangtze finless porpoises. Discourage anglers from using the "four anchor hooks" on the shore.
"This kind of "four anchor hook" has 4 sharp hook tips. It can directly hook through the body of a big fish without the fish biting the bait, which is very destructive to fishery resources." Shu Yinan told reporters.
In 2017, Shu Yinan, who was born on a fishing boat and has caught fish for more than 40 years, put away his fishing nets and signed up to participate in the newly formed Hukou patrol team.
"In the past few decades, seeing the Yangtze river shad and river puffer fish have disappeared, the fish caught are getting smaller and smaller. If there are no fish in the future, where will there be fishermen?"
As the "ecstasy array" in Poyang Lake was cleaned up, and the electric fishers were punished by law, Shu Yinan saw the welcome changes in the Yangtze River.
"This morning we patrolled 20 kilometers and saw the finless porpoise jump out of the water more than a dozen times. They didn't dare to get so close before. After returning from the patrol at noon, I saw the news that the Yangtze finless porpoise was promoted to the national level one protected animal. . Great, the future of the Yangtze River will definitely be better!" Shu Yinan was extremely excited.
Ten years later, will the Yangtze River regain its former vitality?
During the survey, some netizens also asked: "To what extent can the Yangtze River recover after ten years of banning fishing?" "Will the number of fish exceed the natural carrying capacity?"
"If the Yangtze River is'ill', then the ten-year ban on fishing can only be said to be a'rescue' for the Mother River." Cao Wenxuan pointed out that the ten-year ban on fishing is just a small step for us to protect the Yangtze River. "This is not done once and for all. There is still a long way to go to save the aquatic life of the Yangtze River."
Cao Wenxuan estimated that after ten years of recuperation, the spawning volume of the "four major home fishes" in the Yangtze River could rise to about 20 to 30 billion, reaching up to 30% of the level in the 1960s, and the recovery of many endangered species would be even worse. difficult.
Wei Qiwei, a researcher at the Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, introduced that in the survey of fishery resources and environment in the Yangtze River from 2017 to 2019, they found that 130 species of historically distributed fish failed to collect samples-even more serious However, rare fishes such as Chinese sturgeon, Yangtze River sturgeon, mullet, Chuanshan geluo salmon have no natural reproduction activities.
"The Yangtze River shad disappeared too fast, and we have not had time to overcome the artificial breeding method; in addition, the baiji and white sturgeon have also declared functional extinction." Wei Qiwei believes that the biological resources of the Yangtze River will be there in ten years. As a result, the vitality of the ecosystem will be restored, but some species may leave us forever.
"The ban on fishing guarantees the survival rate of artificially released larvae of Chinese sturgeon. However, due to physical changes such as river dams and other physical changes, the problem of Chinese sturgeon's inability to lay eggs urgently needs scientific research. As a migratory fish from the river and sea, Chinese sturgeon lives in the ocean most of the time , And there is still a vacancy in this aspect of protection." How to prevent the Chinese sturgeon from repeating the mistakes of the white sturgeon is a question that Wei Weiwei has been thinking about-obviously, "just relying on the ban on fishing can not save all the fish."
While the protection of the Chinese sturgeon population is still facing severe challenges, the Yangtze finless porpoise, another flagship species of the Yangtze River, has good news.
Dr. Qian Zhengyi, Deputy Secretary-General of the Yangtze River Ecological Protection Foundation, recalled that while studying at the Institute of Aquatic Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he dissected 60 or 70 dead finless porpoises. About half of the finless porpoises had empty stomachs or showed other hunger symptoms. Hungry, there is no fish to eat in the huge Yangtze River."
With the orderly progress of the Yangtze River ban on fishing in recent years, the pictures of the Yangtze finless porpoise frolicking in Poyang Lake, Yichang, Zhenjiang, Nanjing and other river sections have been frequently searched.
"Comprehensive fishing ban has reduced the risk of illegal fishing gear harming finless porpoises, and their food sources have greatly increased. I believe that in the next few years, their populations will be restored to a certain extent." Qian Zhengyi is very confident about this.
After graduating from his Ph.D. in 2017, Qian Zhengyi devoted himself to the protection of the Yangtze finless porpoise and joined the Yangtze River Ecological Protection Foundation.
Under the guidance of the Yangtze River Office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Foundation cooperated with the fishery administration department to jointly create a mode of assistance in patrol inspections, and absorbed transferred fishermen to engage in inspection and supervision.
"The fishermen are most familiar with the Yangtze River, and they have the most affection for the Yangtze River. Let them change from a'fishing expert' to a'fish protection expert', which can not only solve the need for switching industries, but also give the Yangtze finless porpoise an exclusive bodyguard." Qian Justice said jokingly.
The finless porpoise is not the only one who has delivered good news.
Not long ago, researchers from the Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences discovered a fish in the Yichang section of the Yangtze River.
The squid was once an important economic fish in the Yangtze River Basin. Due to overfishing, river and lake barriers, and habitat degradation, the squid has disappeared in many historical distribution areas. It has been listed as provincial key protected aquatic life in Hubei, Hunan and other places. wild animals.
"After more than 20 years of disappearance, one fish was found in 2017, and another fish was found in 2020 after three years. The time interval between appearances shortened, which marked the beginning of the gradual recovery of the fish population." Wei Qiwei believes that with With the continuous development of the ten-year ban on fishing, the common fish populations of the Yangtze River will increase significantly, and the populations of some threatened fish will also recover.
(Our reporter Zhou Mengshuang)