By Rui Hu, EDITOR

On July 1, Chongqing ended the 4-month closed fishing season. Fishers started to work on the Yangtze River, Jialing River, and Wujiang River, bringing fishes to markets. Yumin Wharf in Gaoyang Town of Yunyang County welcomed dozens of fishing boats and a raft of customers that day since wharf trade is still popular along the Pengxi River, a Level-I tributary of the Yangtze River. Yet fruits of the first-day fishing were fewer than that of previous years.

Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security jointly released the Implementation Plan on Comprehensive Fishing Prohibition and Establishment of Withdrawal Compensation Mechanism for Fishers in the Yangtze River Basin. According to the Plan, fishers should completely stop fishing in the Yangtze River Aquatic Organism Conservation Zones by the end of 2019. Following them, waters besides conservation zones in main streams and major tributaries of the Yangtze River should also realize fishing prohibition by the end of 2020. The closed fishing period is expected to extend over a period of 10 years. As a result, this might be the last fishing season before that.

At around 7:00 of July 1, fishers set off from Lijiatuo Wharf in Banan District for fishing. They did not rest until noon and would continue working later on.

Liu Yuanwen is 49 but has been fishing for over 30 years on the Yangtze River. “I started fishing with my parents when I was a teenager. At that time, I could easily get a mass of fishes in one catch. But now, I could only get a small number of them in several catches.”

Although the gain is getting worse, Liu looked forward to this year’s fishing season and got prepared some days earlier. He said: “I bought a new net and repaired my boat and tools, hoping to have a fruitful first-day. Fishing is my only skill. Fortunately, yet the number of fish is much less, the market is promising.”

In that morning, Liu got about 2.5 kg fish in three catches, fewer than that of previous years. According to Liu, the largest Coreius heterokont he caught weighed roughly 0.5 kg, almost doubling the weight of such fish caught before, which can sell at a good price. He found that after the four-month closed fishing period, fish indeed grew larger. Larger fish will bring a higher price, which improves the income of fishers.

Source: CQCB

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