A seasonal three-month fishing ban on China’s Yangtze River, imposed by the Ministry of Agriculture, comes into force this Thursday.

(File photo) 

Fishing boats will be banned from trawling 1,000 kilometers of the river in central China's Hubei Province and southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. In Hubei alone over 600 fishing boats and 1,000 fishermen will be affected.

Fishing bans on another 700-kilometer stretch of the Yangtze and 970-kilometers of its tributary the Hanjiang will take effect from April 1 to June 30.

The government said seasonal fishing bans on the Yangtze River -- introduced in 2002 to conserve aquatic resources -- have made some difference. According to Hubei officials 320 million fries of herring, grass carp, chub and bighead fish have been released into the river and catches have increased by 50 percent since 2002.

The Yangtze River has long been regarded as the "cradle of China's freshwater fish and a valuable bank of fish genes". However, over fishing in recent years has brought some varieties to the brink of extinction.

(Xinhua News Agency February 1, 2007)