Volunteers Often Patrol Late at Night, and Have Cracked Down on More than 1,000 Illegal Electric Shock Fishing in the Past Year | Applying to Establish a CBCGDF Community Conservation Area(CCAfa)

Recently, a volunteer team in Ningbo City, Jiangsu Province, sent application materials to the Research Department of the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation(CBCGDF), planning to establish a CBCGDF Community Conservation Area (CCAfa) with the purpose of protecting aquatic resources. At present, the application for the establishment of the CCAfa is under review.

Ningbo City is located in the northeast of Zhejiang Province, in the middle of the mainland coastline. It prospered because of the port. It was the starting point of the Silk Road in the Tang Dynasty and one of the earliest cities to open ports in China. Ningbo City is rich in water resources. There are rivers such as Yuyao River, Fenghua River, and Yong River in the urban land area. There is Hangzhou Bay in the north. There are as many as 611 islands of various sizes in the sea area. The sea area around the islands has also been rich in aquatic resources in history.

"We have a lot of water resources here, but after so many years of rapid development, there are not many or very few fish resources in the water now," said Mr. Jiang, an volunteer in Ningbo. This situation is inevitably related to the fact that many local people use electric shock fishing or illegal fishing with illegal nets. In order to protect local fishery resources, in May 2023, Mr. Jiang and other volunteers joined the anti-electric shock fishing volunteer organization established by CBCGDF across the country to protect local aquatic resources in Ningbo.

Unlike the daily patrol methods of anti-electric fishing volunteer organizations established in other parts of the country, anti-electric fishing volunteers in Ningbo usually go out at night or late at night to patrol and protect aquatic resources. Because in broad daylight, local illegal electric shock fishers or fishermen will not go out, and their ability to counter-strike and counter-reporting is also relatively strong.

Mr. Jiang stated, after a year of patrols and crackdowns by anti-electroshock fishing volunteers in Ningbo, the number of electro-shock fishing incidents in Ningbo has decreased significantly, but illegal fishing in large and small waters is still very common. Many people like to use family-killing nets to fish in large and small rivers or offshore. Sometimes, there are more than 10 people fishing on a stretch of river at nigh. The reason why there are so many illegal fishermen in Ningbo now is largely related to the low cost of breaking the law, the small number of fishery management personnel, and the inability to manage them. For example, illegal electro-shock fishing, because of advanced and powerful fishing equipment, the fishing catch in one night is worth more than 10,000 yuan, and the fines after being caught range from 4,000 to 5,000 yuan to as little as 1,000 yuan; some electro-shock fishing equipment worth nearly 100,000 yuan is not confiscated after being caught, but returned to the illegal fishermen," said Mr. Jiang.

Author: Gone

Translator: Daisy

Reviewed by Sara

Editor: Daisy

Contact: v10@cbcgdf.org; +8617319454776

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