Recently, a "strange fish" more than half a meter long was fished out from the water system of a community in Beijing. Professionals confirmed that it is a ferocious fish from the Americas, the crocodile gar, which is an invasive alien species.
According to media reports, a "water monster" has also appeared in a park in Henan recently, and the park highly suspects that it is a released alligator gar.
It is reported that the fish was 70 to 80 centimeters long, but the garden organized fishing but failed to catch it.
In fact, it is not uncommon for alligator gars to appear in domestic waters.
According to reports, Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Henan, Sichuan, Jiangsu and other provinces have recorded wild distribution records of alligator gar.
Experts said that the alligator gar is weird in shape, fierce in character and large in size, and can be regarded as the most dangerous alien invasive aquatic creature.
Experts suggest that alligator gar should be included in the national key management invasive species list.
From August 1 this year, the "Administrative Measures for Invasive Alien Species" came into effect. This is my country's first management method for the prevention and control of alien species.
The management of invasive alien species has attracted wider attention in society.
Alligator Gar
Predation of other fish is basically useless
According to the data, the alligator gar is a special freshwater giant carnivorous fish in southern North America. It is a prehistoric fish and has survived on the earth for more than 100 million years.
The crocodile gar is the order of the gar, the family gar, and the genus of large gar. It is the largest of the seven existing gar species, with a maximum length of 3 meters. It mainly feeds on other fish.
Because of its mouth like a crocodile and densely covered with sharp teeth, it is called the crocodile gar.
Gu Dangen, an expert on the prevention and control of alien species invasion in the national bulk freshwater fish industry technology system, introduced to reporters that gars are distributed from northern South America to southern North America. The most common ones in my country are the alligator gar and the spotted gar. , alligator gars are more frequent in natural waters.
Of these two types of gar, the alligator gar is the largest, most ferocious, and the most dangerous.
Talking about the harm of this kind of fish, Gu Dangen once said: "The crocodile gar can eat almost all the fish in the habitat (of course, only small water bodies are realistic). In the case of insufficient food, cannibalism is for them It's commonplace."
Li Li, head of the Beijing Black Panther Wildlife Conservation Station, said that if the alligator gar is released into the waters south of the Yangtze River, it will bring devastating disasters to wildlife in some areas.
The alligator gar can lay more than 150,000 eggs at a time, and when it reaches the temperature and humidity conditions, it will grow rapidly and eat native fish.
In addition to destroying ecology, alligator gars can also cause economic losses.
Gu Dangen told reporters, "If alligator gars are mixed into the breeding waters, the harvest will basically be lost, and farmers will lose everything."
In addition, the alligator gar itself has very limited economic value.
Zou Qiangjun, a senior engineer at the Beijing Aquatic Wildlife Rescue Center, said in an interview with reporters that the scales of the alligator gar are very hard, like wearing a suit of armor, which can withstand sharp blades, so it is obtained from such a "fully armed" fish. Fish meat is a very difficult thing; and the eggs and ovaries of alligator gars are highly poisonous to mammals, including humans, and poisoning accidents will occur if they are eaten carelessly.
Alligator gars are also aggressive.
According to Li Li, if the body is small, it is basically fine, but if the body is large, it may attack poultry. "At present, there are relatively few cases of attacking people."
How could this almost harmless creature come to our country from far away America?
"The crocodile gar was introduced as an ornamental fish." Gu Dangen introduced, "Its shape is rather peculiar and fierce, which can satisfy people's curiosity, so some people like to raise it. The crocodile gar should have been introduced for 20 to 30 years. , at the latest at the beginning of this century, there will be artificial breeding."
Gu Dangen once said, "In the early days, most alligator gars were illegally smuggled. Due to the lack of supervision, it is not difficult to buy alligator gars in the ornamental fish market at present."
"After a large number of crocodile gars are artificially cultivated, they are often released or discarded artificially because the growth rate is too fast, the aquarium cannot accommodate it, or the breeding costs cannot be afforded. Some are artificially released." Gu Dangen said.
He told reporters that alligator gars are widely distributed in my country at present, and their populations are mainly established in the Pearl River area. In particular, most of the city parks and lakes in Guangzhou and Foshan have alligator gars, and some rivers also have alligator gars. .
Last month, an old fisherman from Panyu District, Guangzhou gave Gu Dangen the alligator gar that he fished from the Pearl River 15 years ago, "This fisherman has been raising it for 15 years, which means that the Pearl River system existed 15 years ago. There were fish, but they were relatively few in number and rare at that time.”
Gu Dangen said, "In the past few years, I have clearly known hundreds of alligator gars, and since 2018, the number has gradually increased, and almost all over the country." It also includes Beijing, where records and reports of alligator gars appear in Beijing. Relatively few, recently, the news that the alligator gar was picked up from the water system of a community in Beijing has once again attracted the attention of the public.
According to existing reports, there are wild distribution records of alligator gar from Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian to Henan, Sichuan, Jiangsu and other provinces.
difficult to manage
Easy to buy online and offline, difficult to capture aquatic organisms
According to Gu Dangen, aquatic alien species will not cause harm if they are only cultivated in controlled water bodies such as ponds or aquariums.
If it is placed in natural waters and cannot overwinter and reproduce, its harm is short-lived and cannot be defined as an invasive species.
Only those that can reproduce naturally and cause harm in natural waters are called invasive alien species.
The crocodile gar used to be relatively few in number. After long-term monitoring in recent years, it was found that it could establish natural populations in many watersheds in the south, and it also formed a hazard, so it was designated as an invasive alien species.
Invasive alien species need to be managed, but they will face certain difficulties.
For the alligator gar, the governance difficulties can be summarized for two reasons.
First, alligator gar can be easily purchased in both online and offline markets.
Previously, the reporter visited a flower, bird and fish market in Chaoyang District, Beijing as a consumer, and found that there are about 6 shops selling alligator gar, and many sellers told the reporter that alligator gar is very good to feed.
There are also crocodile gars for sale online. There are stores with monthly sales of more than 1,000 crocodile gars, with prices ranging from 10.8 yuan to 400 yuan.
"The trade is not regulated, and you can buy at will. Buyers are scattered and distributed widely." Gu Dangen said that once the crocodile gar bought is discarded or released into natural water bodies, harm will follow.
Secondly, after the crocodile gar enters the water body, it is not easy to find, and it is difficult to fish.
"If a crocodile gar appears in a river, lake or reservoir, it is basically impossible to remove it. Because the water body is too large, it is impossible to drain the water for a crocodile gar. The cost is too high." Dang En said.
The alligator gar, which appeared in the water system of a community in Beijing recently, has escaped the fishing of the property staff many times.
According to reports, the owner who picked up the fish also stayed nearby for several days in order to catch it.
In 2021, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the General Administration of Customs, and the State Forestry and Grass Administration jointly issued the "Work Plan for Further Strengthening the Prevention and Control of Alien Species Invasion", which clearly mentioned "strengthening the supervision of aquatic alien species breeding and promoting Comprehensive management of aquatic invasive alien species such as water hyacinth, Fushou snail, crocodile gar, etc.”.
"Recently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs took the lead, and the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and other ministries and commissions will launch a new national key management invasive species list, and we recommend that alligator gar be included in it." Gu Dangen revealed to reporters.
It is reported that the aquatic invasive alien species to be included in the new "List of Invasive Alien Species under National Key Management", as well as Brazilian tortoise, snapping turtle, "scavenger fish" (scientific name leopard-winged catfish), tilapia chinensis fish etc.
It is imperative to manage invasive alien species.
In Juma River, one of the five major water systems in Beijing, Li Li found that snapping turtles had appeared in the area during patrol and monitoring.
"In summer, I see a few snapping turtles basking on the beach, and sometimes I can hear bullfrogs chirping."
"Brazilian tortoises and snapping turtles have a high survival rate, and their growth cycle is shorter than that of native turtles. They grow especially fast, and they will compete for the food of native species and squeeze the living space of native species." Li Li said that some of the Brazilian tortoises and snapping turtles grow up very fast. Turtles may survive the winter in Beijing, which is a very bad development direction.
Li Zhenyu, a researcher at the State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, told reporters that these aquatic invasive species are typical of ecological hazards, "If you accidentally put your hand in front of a snapping turtle, it may bite off your finger directly. ."
Like alligator gars, managing these aquatic invasive species is not easy.
"When we patrolled, we found snapping turtles or Brazilian turtles, but they were generally not caught, because they are very sensitive, and choosing a place to perch is also conducive to escaping, such as with their heads facing the water. As soon as you get a little closer, it will slide into the water instantly." Li Li said.
As for aquatic invasive plants, their harm should not be underestimated.
"In severe cases, aquatic plants will block the waterway. For example, Spartina alterniflora may entangle the propellers of fishing boats. Floating plants such as water hyacinth are easy to find, but submerged plants live underwater and you can't see them at all." Li Zhenyu introduce.
According to the "2019 China Ecological Environment Status Bulletin" issued by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment on June 2, 2020, more than 660 invasive alien species have been discovered nationwide.
The harm of invasive alien species deserves attention.
Public information shows that my country is one of the countries most seriously affected by the invasion of alien species.
Taking the invasion of forest pests as an example, the average annual area during the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period is 170 million mu, causing direct economic losses and ecological service value losses of 110 billion yuan. The average annual loss of forestry caused by etc. is as high as 11 billion yuan.
Governance is broken
Control from the source starts from the grassroots level
In the case of the crocodile gar, governance is "killing at the source".
Gu Dangen emphasized.
According to the staff of Beijing Customs, according to Chinese laws and regulations, the entry aquatic animals should be included in the access list published by the General Administration of Customs and listed in the trade contract or Before the signing of the agreement, the "Entry Animal and Plant Quarantine License" can be obtained before import.
The reporter's inquiry found that the list of countries or regions and species of aquatic animals that have been admitted on the official website of the General Administration of Customs includes the gar family in Indonesia.
The reporter consulted Tianjin Customs and learned that this means that gar from Indonesia can be imported into China.
In this access list, the reporter did not find any gar aquatic animals from other countries or regions.
"Now the customs has begun to pay attention to this issue." Gu Dangen told reporters, "Some time ago, the relevant person in charge of the customs department came to us and asked us to provide some pictures of invasive aquatic organisms such as crocodile gar, and then we should strengthen management, explain For the prevention of the invasion of alien species, various departments are taking action."
The "Measures for the Administration of Invasive Alien Species", which came into effect on August 1 this year, stipulates that the customs should strengthen the prevention and control of invasive alien species at ports, and crack down on illegal acts such as the illegal introduction, carrying, delivery, and smuggling of alien species.
The discovered invasive alien species and the alien species that have been assessed as having an invasive risk shall be disposed of in accordance with the law.
"The "Administrative Measures for Invasive Alien Species" is my country's first management method for the prevention and control of alien species. The functions of prevention and control and monitoring will help to further improve the efficiency of customs enforcement at ports." Zhang Hongmei, director of the Animal and Plant Quarantine Division of Beijing Customs, said.
The Work Plan for Further Strengthening the Prevention and Control of Alien Species Invasion also stipulates that the management of the introduction of alien species should be strengthened.
It is clear: "Strictly approve the introduction of alien species in accordance with the law, strengthen the management and control of their use after introduction, and no unit or individual may introduce, release or discard alien species without approval."
On the other hand, the prevention and control of invasive alien species must start from the grassroots level, Gu Dangen said.
Alligator gars are often discarded by farmers or released into the wild, causing harm.
In this regard, Chapter 3, Article 38 of the Wildlife Protection Law of the People's Republic of China clearly stipulates that any organization or individual releasing wild animals into the wild environment shall choose local species suitable for wild survival in the release area and shall not interfere with the normal life of local residents. , production, to avoid harm to the ecosystem.
Anyone who releases wild animals at will, causing personal or property damage to others or endangering the ecosystem, shall bear legal responsibility according to law.
Li Li said that this regulation is very strict, so in the past one or two years, the random release of animals has been curbed to some extent.
In addition to not buying and releasing animals at will, the masses can also help discover invasive alien species.
The reporter previously consulted Beijing fishery law enforcement officers and learned that if citizens see someone releasing crocodile gars, they can report to the fishery department.
The reporter learned that, if the number of alligator gar is not large, it can be used in aquariums or related institutions for publicity. Generally, it is used as a negative teaching material for invasive species, reminding people not to release them without authorization.
If the number is large, they are generally killed and made into specimens or used for scientific research, or they are directly removed for landfill and other harmless treatment.
Ye Hongmei, a trainee reporter of the Beijing News
■ Dialogue
Ren Dapeng, professor of China Agricultural University and director of the Agricultural and Rural Legal Research Center:
my country has "three lines of defense" to deal with invasive alien species
The "Measures for the Administration of Invasive Alien Species" (hereinafter referred to as the "Measures") has been officially implemented. What impact does it have on the management of invasive alien species in my country?
Ren Dapeng, professor of China Agricultural University and director of the Agricultural and Rural Legal Research Center, said that in the past, my country's management of invasive alien species had problems such as poor legal connection and unclear departmental responsibilities. fine.
"The "Measures" stipulates from prevention at the source to restoration after treatment, which essentially sets three lines of defense for dealing with the hazards that invasive alien species may pose or have formed." He said that the potential risks of invasive alien species should also be dealt with. Strengthen forward-looking assessment to avoid the whole process management system becoming a mere formality.
Beijing News reporter Zhou Huaizong
"Measures for the Management of Invasive Alien Species" Refines Departmental Responsibilities
Beijing News: What is the background of the "Measures" implemented this time?
Ren Dapeng: Strengthening the management of invasive alien species is an important part of biosecurity management.
Before the implementation of the Biosafety Law and the Measures, my country mainly relied on the Animal Epidemic Prevention Law, the Entry and Exit Animal and Plant Quarantine Law, and the Plant Quarantine Regulations to manage invasive species. Unclear, unclear management authority, emphasis on post-event management and neglect of pre-prevention, management effect is not satisfactory, invasive species formed by various factors still appear from time to time, and bring serious damage to the balance of biological species and agricultural production.
The Beijing News: In these respects, what new measures are there in the Measures?
Ren Dapeng: The provisions in the "Measures" are a refinement of the relevant provisions of Articles 2, 18 and 60 of the Biosafety Law to make them more operable.
For example, Article 60 of the "Biosafety Law" clearly stipulates that "the state strengthens the prevention and response to the invasion of alien species and protects biological diversity."
In the "Measures", the division of responsibilities of the state, province, city, county, customs, etc. is more clearly defined.
Beijing News: Why did you focus on the division of responsibilities and coordination among various departments?
Ren Dapeng: The management of invasive alien species is very complex and involves many aspects, including the invasive alien species itself, as well as various fields such as agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishery, and ecological environment.
Taking this into consideration, Article 4 of the Measures specifically stipulates the establishment of an inter-ministerial coordination mechanism for the prevention and control of invasive alien species, research and deployment of the prevention and control of invasive alien species across the country, and overall coordination to solve major problems.
And in Article 5, the responsibilities that local people's governments at or above the county level and the competent departments of agriculture and rural areas, forestry and grasslands, natural resources and ecological environment should undertake respectively.
Three lines of defense against invasive alien species
Beijing News: The "Measures" stipulate in detail the prevention from the source to the restoration after treatment. What are the characteristics of this aspect?
Ren Dapeng: This shows that the "Measures" pay more attention to the procedural management of invasive alien species, and stipulate corresponding systems in each link.
This process-based management system essentially sets up three lines of defense against the hazards that invasive alien species may pose or have already created.
The first line of defense is the pre-prevention mechanism for biological invasions that may be caused by introduced species. Before species introduction, review and assessment must be conducted. Those who are assessed to have an invasion risk will not be allowed to enter the country. The importing unit must take preventive measures to prevent the introduced species from escaping. , spread to the wild environment, the customs should strengthen the port prevention and control of invasive alien species.
The second line of defense is that for invasive alien species that have been introduced, all relevant departments should strengthen monitoring within the scope of their duties and in accordance with the "Measures", and provide for early warning and information release systems for invasive species.
The third line of defense is for invasive species that have already caused harm. By formulating and implementing a prevention and control plan for invasive alien species, the harm should be controlled or eliminated in a timely manner.
Prospective assessment of possible intrusion risks
Beijing News: In your opinion, after the implementation of the "Measures", what else should be paid attention to?
Ren Dapeng: It is necessary to strengthen basic research on invasive species management.
According to the Measures, the concepts of alien species and invasive alien species are different.
Alien species may not always cause invasive hazards, but if the introduction of alien species is allowed, it may be difficult to prevent and control the hazards only through governance and restoration measures, and the whole process management system may also become ineffective due to this. form.
Therefore, it is necessary to make a forward-looking assessment of the possible invasion risk consequences of alien species through scientific evaluation, and provide a scientific basis for the decision-making of relevant departments.
Beijing News: How to conduct better risk assessment?
Ren Dapeng: Invasive alien species cause damage to the maintenance of biodiversity, the balance of ecosystems and agricultural production, but the degree of damage is uncertain.
Therefore, the management of invasive alien species is essentially risk management, which needs to be strengthened from the perspective of the length and intensity of risk exposure. On the basis of scientific assessment, the relevant departments will timely propose possible risk points, analyze the hazard methods, and strengthen hazard control. .
■ Recommendations
Spodoptera frugiperda is not yet on the list of invasive alien species, and a new round of additions is urgently needed
With the implementation of the "Administrative Measures for Invasive Alien Species" on August 1, my country's management and prevention of invasive alien species will be more rigorous and complete.
From 2003 to 2016, my country has released four batches of invasive alien species lists, recording a total of 71 species, including red fire ants and codling moths that cause serious harm, most of which are agricultural-related species. Spodoptera frugiperda, which has invaded my country, has not yet been included in the list.
In this regard, in 2022, my country launched a census of invasive alien species, including general surveys and key monitoring, led by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, with the coordinated participation of natural resources, customs, environmental protection, housing construction, and the General Administration of Forestry and Grassland.
Li Zhihong, a professor at the Department of Plant Biosecurity, School of Plant Protection, China Agricultural University, believes that this census will provide more detailed and accurate information on the types, distribution areas and damage levels of invasive alien species in my country.
Spodoptera frugiperda is a major migratory agricultural pest warned by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) globally. It is native to the Americas. It broke out in Africa, Nigeria, etc. in 2016 and caused serious damage to maize. In 2018, it invaded India and other Asian countries. January 2019 Invade the Yunnan region of my country.
According to Wang Zhenying, a researcher at the Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the Spodoptera frugiperda that invades my country mainly harms 19 crops such as corn, sorghum, sugarcane, millet, and wheat, as well as 5 kinds of weeds.
The experimental data from Yunnan shows that when there are 173 larvae in 100 plants, it can cause a loss of 53% of corn yield. When the density of larvae is high, it may cause no harvest.
Beijing News reporter Zhou Huaizong