China began a 10-year fishing moratorium from the beginning of this year in 332 conservation areas in the Yangtze River basin, which will be expanded to all the natural waterways of the country’s longest river and its major tributaries from no later than Jan. 1, 2021.
The full-scale ban is likely to affect more than 113,000 fishing boats and nearly 280,000 fishermen in 10 provincial-level regions along the river, according to earlier estimation.
This comes after decades of human activities such as water pollution, overfishing, sand excavation and quarrying have caused serious ecological destruction in the Yangtze River basin.
The Yangtze, which stretches over 6,300 km, boasts rich and complex terrain and climate along its basin and has one of the highest levels of biodiversity in the world.
Official data shows that the average annual fishing output in the Yangtze River is less than 100,000 tonnes, accounting for only 0.15 percent of the national total, which has set alarm bells ringing for the need to take immediate action to restore its ecology.
In areas around the Poyang Lake, China’s largest freshwater lake in the eastern province of Jiangxi, there are more than 300 traditional fishing villages housing over 100,000 residents. Due to the ban, those fishermen will have to bid farewell to their traditional roles and embrace new identities ashore.
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