Editor’s note: As protecting our planet’s flora, fauna and resources becomes increasingly important, China Daily is publishing a series of articles to illustrate the country’s commitment to protecting nature.
A fish escapes from the net as fishermen secure their catch at a fish farm in Anqing, Anhui province, in March last year. The farm has expanded and adopted higher environmental standards to help revitalize the Yangtze River just a few kilometers away. LI LONG/FOR CHINA DAILY
Wei Qiwei, chief scientist of the Chinese Academy of Fisheries Sciences, was born in De’an, a county near Poyang Lake on the Yangtze River in Jiangxi Province, and has vivid childhood memories of water and fish.
The 64-year-old had been playing in a small river near his house since he was three years old. “For us children, the river was a place of comfort and fun. We couldn’t live without it,” he smiled.
More importantly, the river provided his favorite food – fish. His grandfather was a fisherman and fished with the help of trained cormorants. “The bird could easily catch fish, as there were quite a lot of fish at the time.”
In stark contrast to his childhood, however, Wei described the remarkable lack of fish he experienced when he first studied the Yangtze as chief scientist from 2017 to 2020.
“The fishermen had hardly any catch. The money they earned from selling fish was barely enough to cover fuel costs,” he said, noting that he was deeply concerned about the conservation situation at the time.
A total of 323 species of fish were discovered in the river, and 135 species originally native to the Yangtze Valley are still undiscovered, said the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, which funded the study.
A few years later, Wei is somewhat relieved because on January 1, 2020, a ten-year fishing moratorium came into force in the Yangtze Basin, part of a national campaign to promote Yangtze River protection.
In addition to the fishing ban, a number of measures were taken to protect fish stocks in the basin following a symposium on the subject held in Chongqing in January 2016 under the chairmanship of President Xi Jinping.
The President stressed that concerted efforts must be made to protect the Yangtze and that overuse of the river must be prohibited.
Xi then held three more symposiums on the high-quality development of the Yangtze River Basin, the first of which was held in Wuhan in April 2018. At this symposium, the President stressed the need to properly address the relationship between environmental protection and economic development.
Wei praised the decision to promote concerted efforts to protect the Yangtze River as a decision “with foresight and vision”, because fish conservation is not something that a single institution or government agency can do alone, but requires the participation of all sections of society.
