China Bans Fishing on China-Russia Boundary River

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, June 12, 2002

China Bans Fishing on China-Russia Boundary River

On Tuesday a fishing ban was imposed along the China stretch of the Heilongjiang River or the Amur River, a boundary river between China and Russia.

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On Tuesday a fishing ban was imposed along the China stretch of the Heilongjiang River or the Amur River, a boundary river between China and Russia.

The move is aimed to protect two species of sturgeons, acipenser schrencki and huso dauricus, native to the river, which runs for more than 4,300 kilometers. China and Russia share 1,887 kilometers of this stretch of water.

The two species of sturgeons, known as "living fossils in water" will begin spawning in the next 45 days.

Local sources say that another fishing ban will be imposed on China's course of the river in October this year.

In addition, the Chinese government has circled two areas where fishing is prohibited all year round. The two areas, with river bed of grit, are ideal places for sturgeons to spawn and young sturgeons to live.

Experts say that these two species of sturgeons now can only be found in the Heilongjiang River, and they are the only sturgeons that can be fished in their natural habitat in China.

Being the biggest fresh water fish, sturgeons have survived for130 million years. They have much rich unsaturated fatty acid and folic acid compared with other species of fish, according to nutrition experts.

Wild sturgeons around the world were listed as endangered animal species by the United Nations in 1998.

To protect the rare fish species, China's fishery departments have adopted a strict license-approval system to manage catching, processing, marketing and breeding of the fish.

In Luobei County in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, one of the major producers of sturgeons, only eight fishing boats are allowed to net the two species of sturgeon and the quantity they can catch is also limited.

Chen Zhichao, deputy director of Heilongjiang Provincial Bureau for Fishery Products, said that China has started artificial breeding to save and increase the number of the sturgeons.

The Chinese government has established three experimental stations to artificially breed and release sturgeons along the Heilongjiang River. Last July, China's fishery departments released 150,000 fry into the river, and a similar number is expected to be released this July, according to local fishery departments sources.

Artificial breeding is producing encouraging results. At present, dozens of factories in northeastern, southern and central parts of China have begun breeding these sturgeons and their output will meet the demand on the market.

Authoritative information shows that the numbers of the two species of sturgeons have increased markedly thanks to the efforts China has made in artificial breeding and the drop in the number of fishermen and fishing boats on the river.

China has adopted a fishing ban along its major rivers and coastal waters each year in recent years to protect fishery resources.

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