More than 1.6 billion larvae of aquatic creatures were released into rivers, coastal waters and lakes across China on Friday, as part of a significant conservation initiative to improve the nation’s fishery stock.
The main event of the nationwide campaign was held in Fuzhou, the capital city of east China's Fujian Province, where 2.85 million marine and freshwater fries such as eel, sea bass, silver carp and bighead carp were released into the estuary of the Minjiang River and the waters around Matsu islands.
Similar activities were held simultaneously across the country, releasing over 1.6 billion aquatic creatures, including 1.28 billion marine species, 300 million freshwater species, and 50 million precious, endangered and freshwater regional species.
Initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the national restocking activity has been organized annually since 2015, contributing to conserving aquatic biological resources and maintaining biodiversity.
"Since the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), more than 150 billion larvae have been released across China, which has played a significant supplementary role in restoring the country's marine and freshwater fishery resources. Our monitoring shows that over 90 percent of the Chinese prawns caught in the Bohai Sea each year come from restocking, and over 30 percent of the large yellow croakers caught in the East China Sea are artificially restocked resources. The proportion of Chinese sturgeon released from the Yangtze River Basin into the ocean has exceeded 10 percent," said Yuan Xiaochu, deputy director of the Bureau of Fisheries under China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
China's fishery restocked with release of 1.6 billion larvae of aquatic life
