China puts total fishing ban on ailing Yellow River’s upper reaches
- No fishing will be allowed in the area until the end of 2025 in an effort to increase stocks
- Decision is positive but more needs to be done to tackle other causes of demise, researchers say
In a notice issued on Wednesday, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said fishing would be banned on the upper reaches of the beleaguered Yellow River from April 1 until the end of 2025.
The ministry has also extended a seasonal ban on fishing in the mainstream, 13 tributaries and three major lakes by one month from April 1 until July 31. It introduced the seasonal ban in 2018 to help conserve fish stocks in the waterway.
Fish species have been in obvious decline in the river over the past 15 years, with the number of species roughly halving since 2007, according to state news agency Xinhua.
“A survey of the mainstream of the river in 2008 recorded 54 fish species, mainly small fish,” Xinhua reported in April.
The Yellow River runs for 5,464km (3,400 miles), starting in the Tibetan Plateau and passing through nine provinces and autonomous regions to the Bohai Sea.
02:09
Death toll continues to rise after floods in central China that displaced over 1.2 million people
