CHENGDU, June 5 (Xinhua) -- China is expanding fish conservation and river connectivity projects in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, a hydropower-rich region where ecological restoration has become increasingly crucial for biodiversity protection.
The most recent measures include more than 30 million fish released into the Yalong River over the past 16 years, full traceable marking of juvenile fish released in the upper Jinsha River this year, the release of rare Yangtze sturgeon downstream of the Xiangjiaba hydropower station, and the operation of a fishway network linking over 200 kilometers of river sections in the Dadu River basin.
Zhu Bin, chief engineer at the Institute of Hydroecology under the Ministry of Water Resources and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the latest progress shows that ecological protection in the upper Yangtze is shifting from isolated engineering measures to basin-wide systematic governance, combining breeding and release, population restoration, ecological monitoring and river connectivity projects.
The work is taking place in an area where river biodiversity and clean energy development are closely linked. Sichuan Province in southwest China has the country's largest installed hydropower capacity, while the Yalong River basin and the upper Jinsha River are home to integrated clean-energy bases combining hydropower, wind and solar power.
In the Yalong River, the largest tributary of the upper Yangtze, cumulative fish releases have exceeded 30 million, according to the Yalong River Hydropower Development Company, Ltd. Over the past 16 years, the company has released 13 fish species endemic to the upper Yangtze.
Four fish breeding and release stations have been built in the Yalong River basin, and researchers have mastered full-cycle breeding techniques for 11 native fish species, the company said.
In the upper Jinsha River, another key section of the Yangtze, Huadian Jinsha River Upstream Hydropower Development Co., Ltd. said it had, for the first time, marked all 680,000-plus fry released this year.
Using otolith thermal marking and fluorescent marking technologies, researchers can track the growth and migration of released fish over time. The data will help researchers assess the effectiveness of fish releases and whether fish resources are recovering.
So far, more than 7.52 million fish have been released in the Sichuan-Xizang section of the upper Jinsha River, while more than 800 kilometers of river sections have been preserved as fish habitats, the company said.
Rare species protection is also being strengthened. On Friday, China Three Gorges Corporation (CTGC) released more than 660,000 Yangtze sturgeon downstream of the Xiangjiaba hydropower station.
The Yangtze sturgeon is a rare fish species endemic to the Yangtze River and is under China's first-class state protection. Since 2011, CTGC has released more than 3 million Yangtze sturgeon, accounting for over 90 percent of the country's total releases of the species, according to the company.
Figures released earlier this year by the State Council Information Office showed that the wild population of Yangtze sturgeon had increased about sixfold compared with the level before the 10-year Yangtze fishing ban began.
Alongside fish breeding and stocking, restoring river connectivity has become another important priority. In the Dadu River basin, the operation of a fish passage facility at the Gongzui hydropower station has connected a continuous fishway network across eight downstream cascade hydropower stations, linking more than 200 kilometers of river sections.
The Gongzui facility is China's first retrofitted fish passage project for an operational high-head hydropower plant. It uses an intelligent monitoring system to track fish migration over the long term. More fish passage facilities are scheduled to be completed at cascade hydropower stations in the Dadu River basin by 2029. Enditem
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