【中国观察2020年12月25日讯】早在两年前，在武汉举行的长江生物资源保护论坛上，多名专家提到，长江流域水利枢纽项目众多，其中小水电达2.41万座，过度、无序开发已给长江流域水生态环境带来严重影响。而渔民滥捕捞，使得长江水域生态受到进一步破坏。
2020年年初，中共党媒称，为保护生态环境，中共当局对长江流域的重点水域分类分阶段实行渔业禁捕，最迟将在2021年1月1日全面推行暂定为期10年的禁捕政策。部分水域已于2020年初实施禁捕。
根据沿江各地测算，长江流域重点水域禁捕共涉及沿江10个省市的合法持证渔船11.3万多艘、渔民近28万人。渔民们因生计受影响而叫苦连天。
当局承诺为渔民提供技能培训、职业介绍以及信贷等支持，但渔民们表示上岸后工作并不好找，生计难以维持。
农业农村部长江流域渔政监督管理办公室2019年的一项调研报告显示，一半以上的长江渔民年龄超过了50岁，绝大部分只有小学或初中文化水平。他们普遍选择了养老保险中缴费最低的标准，退休时仅能领取80元-120元的养老金。
陆媒引述专家的话说，“渔民顺利转型的最大难点在于生计恢复和重建，其次是渔民搬迁上岸妥善安置，三是社会融入和社会经济整合。问题的解决需要采用组合拳，走多元化、复合型的移民安置之路”。
65岁的老渔民严正华十分想念长江鱼的滋味。他来自四川宜宾市江边的新兴村，这里的人世代打鱼为生。村庄紧挨着盛产鲟鱼的涪溪口。
涪溪口是一个“深水沱”，水质好、江面宽，而且江面下还有40至50米深的河床。当地渔民说，涪溪口是一个大型鱼类经常出没的地方。
宜宾渔民中间流传着“千斤腊子万斤像”的说法。“腊子（鱼）”和“像（鱼）”分别指的是中华鲟和长江白鲟。白鲟是中国最大的淡水鱼类，因其吻部长，状如象鼻，俗称为“像鱼”。
千斤万斤虽属夸大，但严正华说，1993年捕过一条200多斤重、约2.3米的白鲟，得两辆平板车才放得下。
严正华数了一下：把这条白鲟算在内，他在过去40年的捕鱼生涯里见过20多条上百斤重的大鱼，亲手捕过3条百斤以上的鱼。
这种盛况一直持续到20世纪90年代。那时候，“70斤-80斤的鱼多得很。”有一天，严正华运气好，一早上靠捕鱼就挣了七八千元。一年他可以挣十几万元。
但渔业的丰收未能持续。从20世纪90年代开始，涪溪口周边的渔业资源开始明显萎缩，捕鱼的收入一年比一年差。
栖息地丧失、水域污染和滥捕被认为是导致长江渔业资源枯竭的主要原因。
据悉，长江流域过去曾占全中国淡水渔业总产量的6成，但在长年过度捕捞之下，如今已剩不到1％，有专家担忧，长江受到的破坏太过严重，光靠短短10年禁渔已无法恢复。
The Yangtze River basin is under a 10-year fishing ban starting January 1, 2021. Some 280,000 fishermen are crying out for their livelihood. (pixabay)
The construction of 24,100 hydropower plants in the Yangtze River basin, as well as indiscriminate fishing by fishermen, has seriously damaged the water ecology of the Yangtze River basin. Since New Year's Day 2021, the CCP has imposed a 10-year ban on fishing in the Yangtze waters. As a result, some 280,000 fishermen are crying out for their livelihood.
Two years ago, at a forum on the protection of biological resources of the Yangtze River held in Wuhan, several experts mentioned that there are many water conservancy hub projects in the Yangtze River basin, including 24,100 small hydropower plants, and the excessive and disorderly development has brought serious impact on the water ecology of the Yangtze River basin. And indiscriminate fishing by fishermen has further damaged the ecology of the Yangtze River waters.
In early 2020, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) media said that in order to protect the ecological environment, the CCP authorities have imposed a phased ban on fishing in key waters of the Yangtze River basin, with a tentative 10-year ban on fishing to be fully implemented by January 1, 2021 at the latest. Some waters have been closed to fishing since early 2020.
According to calculations along the river, the ban on fishing in key waters of the Yangtze River basin involves more than 113,000 legally licensed fishing vessels and nearly 280,000 fishermen in 10 provinces and cities along the river. Fishermen are crying out for their livelihoods to be affected.
The authorities have promised to provide fishermen with skills training, job referrals and credit support, but fishermen say it is not easy to find work after going ashore and it is difficult to maintain their livelihood.
A 2019 study by the Yangtze River Basin Fishery Administration Supervision and Management Office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs shows that more than half of Yangtze fishermen are over the age of 50, and the vast majority have only primary or junior high school education levels. They generally opt for the lowest standard of contribution in pension insurance, and receive only 80-120 yuan in pensions when they retire.
The land media quoted experts as saying, "The biggest difficulty in the smooth transition of fishermen lies in livelihood restoration and reconstruction, followed by the relocation of fishermen ashore for proper resettlement, and third, social integration and socio-economic integration. The solution to the problem requires the use of a combination of punches, taking a diversified and complex migration and resettlement path."
Yan Zhenghua, a 65-year-old fisherman, misses the taste of Yangtze fish. He comes from the riverside village of Xinxing in Yibin, Sichuan, where people have been fishing for generations. The village is located next to the sturgeon-producing Fuxikou.
Fuxikou is a "deep-water creek" with good water quality, a wide river surface, and a riverbed 40 to 50 meters deep below the surface. Local fishermen say that Fuxikou is a place frequented by large fish.
There is a saying among Yibin fishermen that "a thousand pounds of lazi and ten thousand pounds of fish". The "Lazi (fish)" and "like (fish)" refer to the Chinese sturgeon and Yangtze white sturgeon, respectively. White sturgeon is China's largest freshwater fish, because its kiss is long, like an elephant trunk, commonly known as "like fish".
Although thousands of pounds is exaggerated, but Yan Zhenghua said, in 1993, caught a more than 200 pounds, about 2.3 meters of white sturgeon, it took two flatbed trucks to put down.
Yan Zhenghua counted: including this white sturgeon, he has seen more than 20 large fish weighing hundreds of pounds in the past 40 years of fishing career, and has personally caught three fish of more than 100 pounds.
This flourish lasted until the 1990s. At that time, "there were a lot of 70- to 80-pound fish." One day, Yan Zhenghua was so lucky that he earned seven or eight thousand yuan in one morning by fishing. He could earn more than 100,000 yuan a year.
But the bountiful harvest of the fishing industry did not last. From the 1990s, the fishery resources around Fuxi Mouth began to shrink significantly, and the income from fishing got worse every year.
Habitat loss, water pollution and indiscriminate fishing are considered to be the main reasons for the depletion of fishery resources in the Yangtze River.
It is reported that the Yangtze River basin used to account for 60% of the total freshwater fishery production in China, but in the long years of overfishing, now there is less than 1% left, some experts worry that the Yangtze River has been damaged too seriously, just rely on just 10 years of fishing ban has been unable to recover.