China's recent crackdown on illegal fishing activities involving electric shock devices, explosives and poisoning along the Yangtze River has dealt a heavy blow to illegal fishermen, whose long unchecked activities have now been greatly curbed, the Ministry of Agriculture said in Beijing on November 16.

During the action, more than 1,000 illegal fishing cases were investigated and 1,298 electrical devices seized. Some 41 of the 1, 313 illegal fishermen have been convicted and will go to jail.

Organized by the Fishery Bureau under the Agriculture Ministry of Agriculture, the enforcement activity includes fishery and public security departments in seven provinces and two municipalities along China's longest river, including Jiangsu, Anhui, Hubei, Sichuan, Shanghai and Chongqing.

The Yangtze, rich in aquatic resources, is home to many endangered water animals and fish, and its freshwater fishing output accounts for 60 percent of the country's total.

In recent years, rampant illegal fishing has diminished the aquatic resources and damaged the ecological environment along the river, with some species of fish on the verge of extinction.

Chen Zhengguo, director of the Yangtze River Fishery Resources Office under the Agriculture Ministry, said that of all illegal fishing activities, fishing with electric devices is the most destructive.

"Wherever the electric prod is used, fish, big or small, are doomed, and even if some survive, they basically lose their reproductive ability," he said.