Recently, China Daily, Xinhua Daily, Wuxi Daily and many other media have reported that the Freshwater Fisheries Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences has implemented the important instructions of General Secretary Jin Ping’s "Jointly Protecting the Yangtze River" and supported the environmental protection of ecological resources in Yangtze River basin as well as the relevant recommendations on the "ten-year fishing ban" in the key waters of the Yangtze River Basin. All the reports have been reprinted on platforms such as People.cn, SOHU.com, and xuexi.cn, which aroused widespread public concern.
On July 13-14, the Chinese and English editions of China Daily reported an exclusive interview with Prof. Xu Pao, director of the Freshwater Fisheries Research Center, under the title of "Yangtze River fishing ban reinforced". The interview mainly focused on the implementation of the10-year fishing ban in the main stream and important tributaries of the Yangtze River, large river-connected lakesand other key water areas.
On July 8, the front page of Xinhua Daily with the title of “With ten years of "no fishing" for the year "with fish""reported the implementation of 10-year fishing ban in Jiangsu sectionof the Yangtze River, and other important tributaries, such as Chuhe River, Shuiyang River, Qinhuai River and Shijiu lake, etc.. Prof. Xu Pao said that at present, the scale of freshwater aquaculture has far surpassed that of wild capture, and the number of fishermen is not many. The genetic diversity of artificially farmed fish has degraded.If fishing is banned for 10 years, the population can be improved by breeding high-quality wild fish. At the beginning of 2017, when the Yangtze River Aquatic Life Reserve implemented a total ban on fishing, there were 48 fish species in the Jiangsu section, which has recovered to 79 species this year. The ban on fishing in the Yangtze River not only does not affect our consumption of fish, but also benefits the sustainable use of fishery resources in the Yangtze River.
On July 8, the front page of Wuxi Daily reported the latest monitoring data released by the Freshwater Fisheries Research Center under the title "A year of fishing ban, the density of bigmouth grenadier anchovy (Coilia macrognathos Bleeker) has more than doubled". According to the report, “After the prohibition of productive fishing on February 1, 2019, the resource and individual size of bigmouth grenadier anchovy in the Yangtze Riverhave rebounded significantly. This year, the number and weight of single net catch of bigmouth grenadier anchovy are 29.5 and 2.0 kg, both are the best level in the past 5 years. Compared with the average indicatorsof 2015-2018, they are increased by 138% and 155% respectively, which means that the resource density has more than doubled." At the same time, FFRC also monitored the wild puffer fish fry at the Yangtze River estuary on June 5, which was the first discovery in the recent 20 years, indicating that the proliferation and releasing over the years has effectively promoted the recovery of fish populations.
（Translated by WANG Yun）
