Defending Biodiversity: A 10-Year Fishing Ban on the Yangtze River

“A total of 332 aquatic reserves of the Yangtze River basin have been completely closed to fishing since January 1 this year, and a 10-year ban will extend to natural waterways of the river and its major tributaries by January 1, 2021,” said Yu Kangzhen, vice-minister of agriculture and rural affairs, at a news conference on July 15. He then continued by saying, “Since 2019, provinces and municipalities along the river have withdrawn nearly 80,000 fishing boats and resettled 10,000 fishermen from the fishing industry.

- ZHOU LIN

Shanghai, Jiangxi, and Yunnan have already completed the removal of fishing boats and banning of fishermen ahead of schedule.” A 10-year fishing ban is to restore the ecological function of the Yangtze River.

A Severe Challenge

“Removing and resettling nearly 300,000 fishermen in 11 provinces and municipalities is unprecedented in the history of governance on rivers and lakes,” said Professor Pan Yingjie, executive deputy director of the Strategy Research Center for the Yangtze River Ecological Protection and former president of Shanghai Ocean University. Pan added, “It shows our respect for nature, and the protection of aquatic biological resources is a promise made to future generations.”

The Yangtze River, reputed as the mother river of the Chinese nation, is one of the most famous rivers in the world for having the most abundant aquatic creatures. From Qinghai in northwest China to the coastal city of Shanghai, it flows through 11 provinces and municipalities and enters into the East China Sea at Chongming Island. There are more than 4,300 kinds of aquatic life living in the river, with over 430 kinds of fish species, 170 of which are rare. As a cradle of freshwater fisheries, the Yangtze River serves as the original breeding ground of numerous economic fish and the world’s most important freshwater biological gene bank.