CHONGQING: Amid the autumn rain, Liu Hong carefully steered his fishing boat on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River to check for any illegal fishing activities.
Liu, 50, is head of a voluntary patrol team guarding a national nature reserve of rare fish. The patrol squad, established eight years ago with the support of local government, has 11 members, the majority of whom once relied on fishing for a living. The change of the role of these fishermen is a result of efforts made by southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality to protect the ecological environment of China’s “mother river.”
While patrolling the river, Liu often sees fish swimming in the water and wild birds leisurely strolling along the shore.
“The number of poachers is much smaller now, thanks to the stringent protection measures,” Liu said. The story was, however, much different around 2000. sIllegal fishing was rampant back then, resulting in a sharp decline of the rare and endemic fish in the river. Licensed fishermen could barely catch enough fish and had to rely on farming, Liu recalled.
Since the establishment of the voluntary patrol team, local fishermen have waged a campaign against illegal fishing, helping bust more than 1,000 cases of such unlawful activities along the river. On Jan. 1, 2021, a 10-year fishing ban took effect in pivotal waters of the Yangtze. Chongqing has established a long-term management mechanism for implementing the fishing ban and achieved comprehensive law enforcement cooperation in interprovincial boundary waters.
Owing to the persistent efforts, the rare fish population has recovered notably, according to monitoring data released by a research team from the College of Fisheries with Southwest University.
The frequency of occurrence of rare species such as Yangtze sturgeons, rock carp and mullet has been upgraded from “rare” to “occasional” or “common.” The national nature reserve of Jinyun Mountain is located in downtown Chongqing. –Agencies
