[Explanation] Suzhou River is the mother river of Shanghai.
Since the beginning of this year, the Suzhou River Management Station has received reports from citizens of 13 incidents of large-scale dead fish in the Suzhou River, which is far more than in previous years.
"These fish are not wild, most of them are released by citizens," Niu Jun, a staff member in charge of cleaning the Suzhou River, told reporters that when the dead fish appeared in pieces, they could weigh 4 to 5 tons a day.
[Concurrent] Cleaning staff Niu Jun
There used to be a few sporadic residents carrying a plastic bag to release them, but now they are driving a truck with buckets filled with fish to release them. The scale is quite impressive.
[Explanation] Cai Haifeng, deputy head of the Moganshan branch of the Suzhou River Management Station, introduced that Suzhou River belongs to landscape water, with low oxygen content and very limited fish capacity.
Especially in the case of Shanghai's continuous high temperature and heavy rain this summer, the water quality will deteriorate in a short period of time, and the oxygen content will further decrease. It is difficult for the fish released by the public to survive.
Cai Haifeng said that after the 42-kilometer coastline in the central urban area of Suzhou River was basically completed by the end of 2020, citizens' life-releasing activities became more frequent. Some people released life on a large scale during large-scale festivals, and some people came to release life for the senior high school and college entrance examinations.
[Concurrent] Cai Haifeng, deputy head of the Moganshan branch of Suzhou River Management Station
The first is that there are more and more people releasing people, and the second is that the people who release people are getting younger and younger.
The third is that they release a large number of fish species, and the amount is also very large, which is actually bringing a lot of pressure to our daily supervision and cleaning operations.
[Commentary] Cai Haifeng said that we have specifically observed which special time period citizens will choose to release their animals. We will focus on these times.
The supervision department will inspect the section of Suzhou River. During the inspection process in the morning and afternoon, once any dead fish pollution or exposed garbage is found, it will promptly notify the cleaning operation unit to go to the scene and deal with it first.
At the same time, the cleaners also focus on these areas in their daily routine salvage and clean-up work, and they can clean up at any time once they are found.
"Many citizens don't understand the dangers of their actions, and the intention of releasing the animals may be good," Cai Haifeng said frankly, but inappropriate releasing will lead to the death of a large number of fish and the pollution of the Suzhou River water environment.
[Concurrent] Cai Haifeng, deputy head of the Moganshan branch of Suzhou River Management Station
In his opinion (the releaser) his behavior itself is not a bad thing, that is to say to us the release itself is not a bad thing, but it is actually inappropriate to choose release within the scope of Suzhou River.
[Explanation] At present, the Shanghai City Appearance and Environmental Sanitation Water Management Office, on the one hand, strengthens water surface inspections and operation supervision, and strengthens emergency response to sudden pollution; on the other hand, it strengthens publicity and persuasion, and calls on citizens not to release animals in Suzhou River.
Reporter Xu Mingrui reports from Shanghai
Responsible editor: [Lu Yan]