China to Begin Fishing Ban on Lower Reaches of Yangtze in April

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, March 27, 2002

China to Begin Fishing Ban on Lower Reaches of Yangtze in April

Nanjing, on the southern bank of Yangtze River, will become the first area to observe a three-month fishing ban on the river from April 1.

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Three-month fishing ban

Nanjing, on the southern bank of Yangtze River, will become the first area to observe a three-month fishing ban on the river from April 1.

The ban, which will become a regular annual activity, is designed to protect wildlife and resources on China's longest and the world's third longest river.

With a length of 6,300 km, the Yangtze runs through Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces before emptying into the East China Sea at Shanghai.

360,000 yuan to subsidize affected local fishermen

In Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, some 100 km of Yangtze River waters will be forbidden for fishing. Local sources said the city has allocated 360,000 yuan (about 43,373 U.S. dollars) to subsidize affected local fishermen.

Information from the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture said the fishing ban on the Yangtze River, the first such operation on the mighty river, will extend to 4,251 km long the river at different times.

The fishing ban on the upper reaches of Yangtze from southwest China's Yunnan Province to central China's Hubei Province is being carried out from February to April, while the ban on the lower reaches of the river from Hubei to east China's Shanghai, including that in Nanjing, will begin from April to June.

The river's annual catch of wild fish has fallen to about 100, 000 tons a year, about one fourth of what Yangtze fishermen routinely caught in 1954. Its fishing output accounts for 60 percent of the country's total freshwater fishing output, according to the ministry.

Since 1995 there has been an annual three-month fishing ban in the Yellow Sea, as well as the East and South China Seas.

China to Impose Fishing Ban on Yangtze River

China will ban fishing on its longest river, the Yangtze, from February to June next year to protect marine resources endangered by over-fishing.

If the ban goes smoothly, the prohibition period will be instituted annually, Wednesday's Beijing Morning Post quoted an official with the Ministry of Agriculture as saying.

The annual catch of aquatic products in the Yangtze River totaled 427,000 tons in 1954. But the figure dropped to around 100,000 tons in recent years as a result of over-fishing. In Detail

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