10-year ban on fishing, the Yangtze River has become a haven for fish

As the Yangtze River enters a 10-year fishing ban, it has become a haven for fish and is now more "lively" than ever. As we increase the protection of the Yangtze River basin, there are more and more fish in the Yangtze River, and sometimes we even see some rare fish. For example, in Loyang Lake, the first large-scale swordfish group is found in the past 10 years, besides, "river pig" porpoise and Yangtze sturgeon also keep appearing.

Sinless porpoises come in groups

Look, there are more than a dozen porpoises! In the river section of Nanjing's main city, from time to time, there are porpoises of Yangtze river dolphins leaping out of the water. Groups of porpoises are appearing, and people who see them out in the vicinity are excited, and some parents even bring their children to watch them.

In the Wuhan city section of the Yangtze River, people have also seen porpoises appear, before pictures of porpoises feeding in these waters are relatively rare, but staff said that since the Yangtze River entered the 10-year fishing ban, they have seen porpoises more and more times, in the same waters they have encountered porpoises 2 times, but this is the first time to see porpoises appear in groups.

During the scientific research of the Yangtze sinless porpoise in 2022, researchers set up sampling points every 80-100 kilometers to collect water samples, filter the cells shed in the water by the sinless porpoise through the equipment, and then bring them back to the laboratory to analyze the distribution of sinless porpoise in the Yangtze River. The research vessel has seen groups of porpoises and "mother and child" porpoises. These young porpoises should have been born in April and May this year, and similar situations have been seen in many places, which means that there are baby porpoises born in many porpoise groups this year, which is great news for growing the population size of porpoises.

On the sixth day of the 2022 Yangtze sinless porpoise scientific research, several sinless porpoises were spotted near the mouth of Donging Lake in Changeling, Yangtze River, and at least two pairs of "mother and child" dolphins were found in the group.

In 2017, when the Yangtze sinless porpoise ecological study was conducted, the number of sinless porpoises was only 1012, which was extremely rare. Now that the Yangtze River has entered a 10-year fishing ban and the Yangtze River basin has been protected, it has become more common to see groups of Yangtze sinless porpoises playing on the surface of the river.

Will the Yangtze dolphin flood in the future?

With fewer people fishing, the Yangtze River has become a haven for all kinds of fish, and the number of fish is increasing. In Xinjiang River, a first-class tributary of the Yangtze River, some people saw a large number of fish, which gathered in groups and looked so much that they looked like they dyed the surface of the river black. This is the result of the fishing ban. Will the Yangtze sinless porpoise, a rare animal, also flood the river in the future, so much so that the surface of the river is dyed black?

If it is a general fish, with superior survival conditions, the population size will grow and may even become flooded, but the possibility of the Yangtze sinless porpoise flooding these rare animals is almost non-existent. Yangtze sinless porpoise is the only cetacean in the Yangtze River, their body length can generally reach about 1.2 meters, the longest porpoise's body length can reach about 1.9 meters, weight is up to 50-70 kg, life expectancy up to 20 years, body shape is a bit like dolphins.

Normally, these Yangtze sinless porpoises like to live in saltwater and freshwater areas, and sometimes in the freshwater areas of rivers, sometimes alone, sometimes in groups.

As dolphin-like animals, Yangtze sinless porpoises are very lively and like to play happily in the water, and from time to time they will leap out of the water in groups, rolling and jumping on the water's surface, and even spraying water. Sometimes the Yangtze sinless porpoise also swims upright, with two-thirds of its body exposed to the water, maintaining a vertical posture with the water's surface, which is very cute.

It is such a lively animal, but its current situation is not optimistic. Previous research data shows that the number of Yangtze sinless porpoises has been less than that of giant pandas, which is known as "the giant panda in the water". However, as we increase our conservation efforts, especially now that the Yangtze River basin has entered a 10-year fishing ban, these rare animals have the opportunity to grow their population size. In the previous article, we have seen many Yangtze sinless porpoises in groups and some baby porpoises in the Yangtze River basin by research vessels.

Although there is a chance to restore the population size, the Yangtze sinless porpoise, a rare animal, is not going to be flooded because the Yangtze sinless porpoise does not have a strong reproductive capacity. The peak breeding period of Yangtze sinless porpoise is from May to August every year, and their gestation period is relatively long around 12 months, so the Yangtze sinless porpoise that finishes mating this year will only give birth to baby porpoises the following year, and generally, the sinless porpoise will only have one baby in a litter. So, even if all the porpoises are pregnant at the same time, not many porpoise babies will be added in 1 year.

Moreover, Yangtze sinless porpoise is a relatively large carnivore and feeds on various fish, shrimps, and other animals. In general, the higher the species is in the food chain, the more difficult it is for them to be proliferated, just like on the prairie, the number of rabbits and rats may be large, but lions are very rare.

Because the energy comes from the sun, plants photosynthesis of solar energy into organic matter, animals can not photosynthesis with plants, but some animals will feed on plants, plants to get the energy needed, and those carnivorous animals feed on some lower animals, from which to get energy, this is the food chain. Energy is passed through the food chain, and this energy will be lost in the process of passing, and only 10-20% of the energy will be passed to the next species in the process of passing each time. Predators, including the Yangtze sinless porpoise, can only obtain energy by feeding on other animals, and this process will continue to lose energy.