NANCHANG, June 30 (Xinhua) -- After riding a fishing boat for decades on the Poyang Lake, China's largest freshwater lake connected to the Yangtze River, Wang Diyou has bid farewell to his fishing career.
Like the 52-year-old ex-fisherman, residents in Gutang Town in the city of Jiujiang, east China's Jiangxi Province, made a living by fishing on the Poyang Lake for generations.
However, the dwindling aquatic resources and degrading biodiversity caused by long-term overfishing worried the fishermen who genuinely love their hometown.
"Electric fishing may affect the breeding ability of the fish and accidentally injure the finless porpoise," said Wang. "For the sake of future generations, we must do something to protect them."
According to scientific research by the then Ministry of Agriculture, there were around 1,000 wild finless porpoises in China in 2017, mainly in the main stream of the Yangtze River and Poyang Lake.
In 2016, Wang became a patroller on the Poyang Lake. His job was to observe the finless porpoises and migratory birds, clean up garbage in the lake and report illegal fishing and sand mining.
Two years later, Wang set up a patrol team to protect the endangered Yangtze finless porpoises in Jiujiang. Some team members had even been reported by him before for illegal fishing.
"From some initial misunderstandings about my work to fighting side by side with me, they gradually realized that it's our fishermen's duty to guard the lake," Wang said.
To further preserve the biodiversity of the Yangtze River, China began a 10-year fishing moratorium from the beginning of this year in 332 conservation areas in the Yangtze River basin, which will be expanded to all the natural waterways of the country's longest river and its major tributaries from no later than Jan. 1, 2021.
Due to the ban, more than 100,000 fishermen from over 300 fishing villages situated around the Poyang Lake had to end their traditional roles and embrace new identities ashore. Many fishermen in Gutang chose to look for jobs in the industrial parks nearby.
Among Wang's team members, some had worked as security guards in the industrial parks after going ashore, while others had started raising crayfish. But all of them eventually decided to return to the Poyang lake and work full time for environmental protection.
"In these years, the number of fish in the lake has obviously increased," said Wang Ruanhua, a local villager who joined the team this year. "While patrolling, we often see the finless porpoises leaping out of the water. The scene is spectacular."
Although his monthly salary of 3,000 yuan (about 425 U.S. dollars) is lower than what he used to earn by fishing, he said the work gave him a sense of pride.
So far, the team consists of six ex-fishermen with an average age of over 50 years.
Thanks to the collective efforts of the ex-fishermen and local government, illegal fishing in the lake is a rare sight in recent years. More and more local fishermen are joining the fight to strengthen the protection of aquatic life including finless porpoises.
"For the sustainable development of the Poyang Lake, we old guys will stick to our posts," Wang Diyou said. Enditem
