CBCGDF Volunteers Jointly Take Action To Clear Illegal Fishing Gear From the Hulan River and Through More Than 20 Centimeters of Ice
After the winter, as the temperature gradually dropped below zero, the Hulan River Basin in Suihua City, Heilongjiang Province has long been covered with ice and snow. The surface of the Hulan River has been frozen for more than a month. On December 16, volunteers from the CBCGDF Suihua Nature Reserve cooperated with fishery law enforcement officers and ecological environment supervisors from the Beilin District of Suihua City to carry out ecological patrols of the Hulan River in winter.
Together with local fishery law enforcement officers, the volunteers drove to the Hulan River and patrolled on foot on the frozen river. Although it was a sunny day, the temperature felt by people walking on the frozen river was still more than 20 degrees below zero, which was very cold. Looking from a distance on the snow-covered river, it was all white, and it was not easy to find illegal fishing tools. However, the fishery officers and volunteers who are familiar with the local environment are experienced. They will observe or search along the footprints on the frozen lake surface, and stop when they find sticks, ropes, etc. left by humans on the snow on the river. When it is confirmed that someone is setting up a trap net or a family-destroying net, use an ice pick to drill through the ice layer more than 20 centimeters thick to take out the trap net or family-destroying net under the water.
Many of the traps were found empty after being pulled up; some of the traps were found to contain large river clams and large and small fresh cold-water fish when they were cleaned up. In one or two of them, a chopstick-length fish and a large catfish were cleaned out. Volunteers and fishery officials carefully rescued them from the nets and released them back into the Hulan River. The traps are banned as fishing tools in the country's Wildlife Protection Law because they have too dense mesh and can catch fish of all sizes.
According to statistics from the CBCGDF volunteers who participated in the joint fishery protection operation, they patrolled more than 30 kilometers that day, including more than 10 kilometers of the Hulan River, cleared 9 unclaimed ground traps, and released many river fish. According to the relevant requirements of the Heilongjiang Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the Suihua Municipal Agricultural Comprehensive Administrative Law Enforcement Detachment, the 2024 winter crackdown on illegal fishing and prevention of fishery safety accidents will continue throughout the winter until the river thaws in the spring of the following year.
Original Chinese Article: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/RpjnJ-fEpRsAPWgHe8dUNw
Translator: Maggie
Checked by: Richard
Contact: v10@cbcgdf.org; +8617319454776
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