On April 18, from a press conference on the protection of fishery resources of the Yangtze River held by the Municipal Agricultural and Rural Bureau, the reporter learned that the scientific investigation report on the Yangtze finless porpoise released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in 2018 showed that the Yangtze finless porpoise in Yichang section increased from 2 or 3 to more than 17 heads.
This encouraging achievement shows that the relevant departments of the Municipal Agricultural and Rural Bureau closely focus on the conservation of aquatic organisms and fishery resources, and actively coordinate various efforts to promote the protection of fishery resources in the Yangtze River.
The head of the Municipal Agricultural and Rural Bureau said that the Yangtze River flows through Yichang for 237 kilometers. The fish living here are diverse such as Chinese sturgeon, Yangtze sturgeon, finless porpoise, carmine fish and other national first and second-class protected aquatic wildlife. There are also important rare fish such as Longsnout catfish, Bronze gudgeon, Elongate loach and the economic fish represented by the "four major fish", and many fish breeding grounds are distributed here and there.
In order to formulate the implementation plan of fishermen's withdrawal from fishing in the Chinese Sturgeon Nature reserve, further implement the prohibition of fishing and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of fishermen, the agricultural and rural departments held three fishermen's symposiums on the basis of fishermen's family information to understand the relevant demands of fishermen and the plan of fishermen's withdrawal from fishing has been revised 9 times. The implementation plan involves the collection of fishing gear for fishermen, living allowance during the period of resettlement, compensation for withdrawal from fishing, resettlement after reproduction and vocational training.
In the second half of 2018, the agricultural and rural departments raised more than 100,000 yuan from working funds to publicly recruit six fisheries assistant patrolmen among fishermen, whose task is to carry out routine patrols in accordance with the plan and cooperate with fishery law enforcement departments to assist in law enforcement. In the past three years, more than 30 cases of illegal management of aquatic protected animals have been dealt with, and more than 40 cases of aquatic protected animals have been collected. Among them, the case of electric fishing by large groups occurring on June 4 in Bailizhou, Zhijiang County was sentenced at the people's court of Wujiagang District, and eight defendants were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from two to six months. Seven of them were ordered to release 3998 kg adult fish and 1747,000 juvenile fish in the electric fishing waters of Yangtze River, which became the case with the largest compensation in criminal and public interest litigation in recent two years in Yichang. And the case was listed as ten of "China Fishery Administration Bright Sword 2018" by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Areas.
"In recent years, our city has organized annual release activities of rare aquatic wildlife, established the release points of rare fish in the Yangtze River, and organized regular or irregular release activities, not only increasing the amount of aquatic biological resources, but also further attracting the attention of all sectors of society on the conservation of resources. The initiative is of great significance to the conservation of aquatic resources." The head of the Municipal Fisheries Administration Supervisory Detachment introduced.
It is understood that this year, the Municipal Agricultural and Rural Bureau will promote local legislation on fishing gear, fishing methods and water areas that may harm the rare and large-scale Fisheries of the Yangtze River in accordance with the new requirements for the protection of fishery resources of the Yangtze River, so as to protect fisheries in accordance with the law. (Reporter Pi Yajie; Correspondent Fang Suzhen)