Banning Yangtze River Saury and Still Selling Fake Lake Fish

From this year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has explicitly prohibited the productive fishing of saury from the Yangtze River, according to the report of China Rural Voice, Agriculture, Countryside and China. Reporter survey found that after the ban on fishing, there are still sales of Yangtze River knife fish on the market.

In a vegetable market in Nantong City, Jiangsu Province, a vendor said that he had Yangtze River knife fish.

Traders: This is the Yangtze River Saury, the general people, people who do not know, people who do not know, we do not show them. The vendor said that he had five Yangtze River knife fish to sell.

The vendor said that he dared to pack the bill. These swordfish were caught in the Yangtze River. It is a secret how they were caught during the prohibited fishing period. Because of the ban on fishing, traders collectively call these Yangtze River knife fish good knife fish.

Traders: Now there is a secret interview with reporters. If you ask what kind of knife fish it is, you can call it a knife fish. It's not called a knife fish. If you think it's good, it's what we call a good knife fish. In recent years, due to overfishing, the production of saury in the Yangtze River is declining dramatically year by year, from thousands of tons to less than 100 tons. In addition, the cuttlefish is very irascible and migratory. It is difficult to cultivate them artificially. The cost of cultivation is very high. So when it comes to the Yangtze River cuttlefish, it is basically wild. In order to protect natural resources, it is illegal to fish saury in the Yangtze River basin this year because of a total ban on fishing in the Yangtze River basin. Will anyone really take risks? Some vendors said publicly and clearly that the Yangtze River knife sold in the market is basically a counterfeit, it should be Chongming knife, the so-called Yangtze River knife is deceptive.

Traders: Chongming knife 550 yuan per kilogram. This year, no fishing is allowed. All saury are deceptive.

According to the common saying, the Yangtze River saury, referred to as saury or river knife, mainly hatches in freshwater, grows in seawater, and migrates to freshwater to reproduce. In addition, adapted to the sea life, not returning to fresh water is the sea knife, Chongming knife mainly refers to the Yangtze River around Shanghai Chongming Island and near the mouth of the sea, and adapted to freshwater life, giving up the migratory nature of the knife called Lake knife. The vendor said that among these kinds of knife fish, the Yangtze River knife is the most expensive, forbidden to catch, followed by the Chongming knife, and the lake knife is the cheapest. Now most of the knife fish on the market are Chongming knife and lake knife.

Vendors: There are many Lake knives, Chongming knives are expensive, and lake knives are cheap. Others sell Lake knives and pretend to be Chongming knives. The Chongming knife I sell here is not a lake knife. The tail of the lake knife is yellow. How did these Chongming knives catch? What is their relationship with the Yangtze River saury? Is this fishing in violation of the ban? There is a fishery management line of the Yangtze River at 122 degrees east-east longitude of Chongming Island, i.e. the boundary of the prohibited fishing area of the Yangtze River. To the west of the line, it belongs to the prohibited fishing area of the Yangtze River, and to the east, it belongs to the offshore sea area. According to traders, many knife fishes in the market are caught near the fishery management line.

Vendors: knife fish will migrate, waiting for it outside the forbidden line, and when it migrates, it is ambiguous to put down the net and grab it out. The ambiguous fishing behavior is no longer important to consumers whether it is Chongming Dao or Yangtze River Saury. Qian Weibing, deputy head of the agricultural law enforcement brigade of Chongming Agricultural and Rural Committee of Shanghai, said that since 2018, Chongming Agricultural Law Enforcement Brigade has been inspecting the vicinity of the management line, focusing on cleaning up illegal fishing gear, Sanwu ships and ships coming to Shanghai from other provinces to ensure that the western waters of the management line are not squeezed by intrusion.

Qian Weibing: Now the main problem may be the management of off-line, because there are some documented offshore fishing boats outside the line, and some illegal fishing boats in other provinces and municipalities, which are inserted into the production inside.

Qian Weibing said that after the ban on fishing, they also dismantled fishing boats this year, and local fishermen basically realized subsidy conversion. However, fishery administration vessels need to navigate in deep water. In the shallow water area west of the fishery management line, it is difficult to enforce the law. In addition, because fishing vessels can sail on the surface of the water, it is not easy to determine whether they are illegal fishing or not, so it is difficult to enforce the law through investigation one by one. Journalists continue to find that, on the one hand, there are fake Lake knives in the market, which disrupt the management order, on the other hand, Chongming knives whose sources can not be fully determined and fishing methods pose a threat to the migratory production of saury. Journalist:

How to distinguish a fishing vessel from a stolen one?

Civilian Police: The size of the fishing boat is quite different from that of other ships. And according to the flood season at that time, he may have carried out an act of poaching and is now driving into the harbour pool. At the beginning of April this year, the officers of Tongzhou Police Station of Nantong Branch of Yangtze River Shipping Public Security Bureau found suspicious vessels through surveillance. According to the characteristics of suspicious vessels and the judgment of their occurrence time, police officers rushed to the monitoring sites to make charges.

The man who came down from the suspicious boat was holding a black plastic bag and the receiver was waiting for the deal in the car. At this time, the police immediately arrested him. In this arrest, 26 swordfish were caught along the Yangtze River, as well as a number of fresh-keeping boxes. In addition, many illegal fishing gear were also found on the vessel.