Seasonal fishing ban extended on Yangtze River

Fishing of several species will remain off-limits on the Yangtze River for another month, marking the first time since 2003 that the ban has lasted for four months.

The fishing ban, which does not yet include the knife fish, is part of an effort to protect more breeding fish and reduce overfishing, the Ministry of Agriculture said.

This year, the Yangtze closure began on March 1, a month ahead of previous years. The ending date of June 30 remains unchanged. The ban also covers larger areas, including the river's main channel, tributaries and major lakes, the ministry said.

China saw a boom in the fishing industry last year, when the output of aquatic products reached 67 million metric tons, with the total value of around 1.1 trillion yuan ($170 billion), it said, adding that major growth is not sustainable because of the conflicts of exploration, limited resources and the environment.

It is estimated that an appropriate size for the fish take was 8-9 million tons annually, but the actual harvest produced more than 13 million tons.

"In the Yangtze River, the overfishing situation is quite severe," said Zhu Jiang, head of a biodiversity conservation project under the World Wildlife Foundation.

The decline of fish in the river, both adults and juveniles, is easy to see over years of observation. Reductions in the fish population are mainly the result of overfishing and discharging of untreated wastewater from the chemical industry, he said.

Liu Zhigang, a researcher at the Yangtze River Fisheries Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences agreed and applauded the extended closure.

"The majority of fish breed from March to June, so the extended off-season covers more protected species," Liu said, adding that the positive results, both on fish and other aquatic species, may show up later, after the authorities finish their assessment.

Han Changfu, minister of agriculture, highlighted the urgency to protect aquatic species in the Yangtze and to find a model for sustainable growth. Supporting the government's decision to extend the fishing ban, the two experts also voiced their concerns that four months of no fishing is still not enough. It should be 10 years, they said.

"But it's never easy to implement such a long period, because after forbidding fishing in the country's longest river, tens of thousands of fishermen would have to find some other way to make a living," Liu said.

The Yangtze runs through 11 provinces and municipalities, thus making the unified fishing ban hard to implement in these areas, said the WWF's Zhu. The governments of those areas would confront different problems as a consequence of a lengthy ban.

Yet the central government could reasonably extend bans in some areas, and could forbid fishing permanently in certain protection zones, he said.