CBCGDF Volunteers Followed the Heads of the Yangtze River Fisheries Administration Office to Conduct Squatting and Secretly Visiting on Illegal Fishing on the Han River | Local Fisheries Authorities Do Not Enforce the Law and Conducted a Thorough Review
2019/10/18 11:24:00 本站

In late September, with the help of volunteers from China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF), the relevant heads of the Yangtze River Fisheries Administration Office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs conducted an undercover investigation of large-scale illegal fishing in the Laohekou section of the Han River (Hanjiang), and strongly urged local government departments to work together to combat illegal fishing and protect the river’s aquatic resources. Praising for the relevant departments’ modern version of “undercover investigation” and the active popularity of the promotion and protection! CBCGDF will also continue to pay attention to illegal fishing in the Laohekou setion, and the possibility of filing Environmental Public Interest Litigation (EPIL) will not be ruled out in the future.

 

There has been a serious illegal fishing phenomenon in the Laohekou section of Hubei Province for a long time. At the beginning of September this year, the CBCGDF volunteers began to continuously report the incident to local and provincial government administrations or above. In late September, the relevant leaders of the Yangtze River Fisheries Administration Office decided to make a secret visit to the Laohekou section in person with the assistance of volunteers from the CBCGDF.

 

The Laohekou section is located in the middle reaches of the Han River. It is about 23 kilometers away from the land and 15 kilometers away from the water surface of the Danjiangkou Reservoir in the upper reaches of the Han River. According to the CBCGDF’s volunteers, illegal fishing in this section of the river has been very serious in the past two years. As many as 40,000 illegal ground cages have been used on both sides of the Han River for many years, and illegal fishing such as labyrinth poaching and electro-fishing is also very common. The average monthly illegal catch amounts to about 450,000 kg, almost all of which are fry and juvenile shrimp.

 

What you hear is false, what you see is true.” On September 24th, Lao Zhou, a volunteer of the CBCGDF, received a telephone call from the relevant leaders of the Yangtze River Fisheries Administration Office, asking him to assist three staff members to personally visit the Laohekou of the Hanjiang River and the section of Gucheng County. The main purpose is to check whether there are a large number of illegal cage nets, illegal electro-fishing and illegal large-scale blocking nets on both sides of the Han River, which destroy the aquatic resources of the Han River.

 

All day on September 25th, the CBCGDF’s volunteer accompanied the relevant leaders of the Yangtze River Fisheries Administration Office to visit more than 110 kilometers along the Hanjiang section, and found that the situation here is basically consistent with the situation previously reported by the volunteers: there are a lot of illegal cage nets and illegal electro-fishing on both sides of the Hanjiang River between Laohekou City and Gucheng County. On both sides of the Han River, because of the flood discharge, the water flow in the middle of the river is extremely fast. Fishermen temporarily pull part of the cage nets onto the bank and pile them on the ship, with a total number of more than 10,000 cage nets. “If you’re sitting in the office, you can’t imagine so many illegal cages…” Relevant leaders of the Yangtze River Fisheries Administration Office said. They also took on-site photographs and fixed evidence of these situations.

 

Around 5:45 p.m., when the undercover investigation was conducted to Jiangjia Wharf near the new waterworks in Gucheng County, Xiangyang City, it was unexpectedly found that a large number of fisher vessels were parked on both sides of the fishery law enforcement vessels in Gucheng County, amounting to 51. Relevant leaders immediately decided to stay here. About 40 minutes later, 27 electro-fishing net boats (a river fishing method of illegal electro-fishing) parked at Jiangjia wharf started and headed upstream one after another. Because of the flood discharge at Danjiangkou at this time, the water is turbulent, and plenty of fish and shrimp are also wrapped up and carried downstream accordingly. Nevertheless, the 27 illegal electro-fishing net boats, despite the danger, began to fish collectively on the river in the face of turbulent currents. The leader of the Yangtze River Fisheries Administration Office was very angry and asked the volunteers to report to the local fishery authorities on the spot.

 

After waiting in situ for about an hour, law enforcement officers from the fishery administration department of Gucheng County rushed to the scene. However, it is surprising that the fishery administrators who came to enforce the law did not wear their work uniforms as required, nor did they show their law enforcement certificates to the electro-fishing net boats that were illegally fishing in the Han River; instead, the volunteers were asked to produce evidence and materials, saying they would deal with them on the basis of the evidence. Leaders of the Yangtze River Fisheries Administration Office criticized the non-standard law enforcement practices of the Gucheng fishery administration and asked them to stop illegal electric fish on the river immediately. Gucheng County fishery administration law enforcement officers did not enforce the law of illegal electro-fishing on the spot all the time and just drove away from the scene, which made the volunteers and heads of the Yangtze River Fisheries Administration Office quite disappointed.

 

On the way back from the secret investigation, the leaders of the Yangtze River Fisheries Administration Office immediately notified the leaders of Hubei Province by telephone and asked them to hold a special meeting on “Combating Illegal Fishing in the Han River” on the morning of September 26th in Laohekou City (Xiangyang City, Hubei Province), to immediately and comprehensively rectify illegal fishing on both sides of the Hanjiang River and effectively protect the wild fish resources in the Han River.

 

On September 26th, the leaders of the Yangtze River Fisheries Administration Office, the leaders of the Hubei Fisheries Department, the heads of all counties, river chiefs, the representatives from agricultural and rural bureaus, water police stations and fishery departments of Xiangyang City attended the special meeting on “Combating Illegal Fishing in the Han River”. After then, the leaders of Gucheng County and Laohekou fisheries administration departments have also made in-depth reviews of local law enforcement officers’ refusal to stop large-scale illegal fishing incidents on the spot during the Leaders’ secret investigation to the Yangtze River on May 25th.


http://file.cbcgdf.org/T18/O125/image/20191015/20191015220644_3044.jpg

(Photo credit: CBCGDF volunteers)


Original Chinese article:

http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/10124.html


By / Xue Tongtong Modified / Maggie