Page - 1014 - in Book of Full Papers - Symposium Hydro Engineering

reserves with a rational layout and complete functions has taken shape in the Yangtze River Basin. In order to effectively protect and make rational use of aquatic germplasm resources and promote the sustainable development of fishery, the Ministry of Agriculture has selected a number of fishing and breeding areas as well as major growth and breeding areas such as spawning grounds, feeding grounds, overwintering fields and migration routes as protected areas of aquatic germplasm resources. Until 2017, there are 228 national conservation areas of aquatic germplasm resources in the Yangtze River Basin. 6.3. ARTIFICIAL BREEDING AND RELEASE As Artificial breeding and release is an important measure to mitigate the adverse impact of water engineering on aquatic resources, breeding and release stations are often correspondingly planned while the hydropower stations is under construction. In response to the decline in fishery resources, the Ministry of Agriculture organized long-term, systematic release activities mainly in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The released offspring seeds are normally provided by local fishery production organizations. Among them, seed multiplication and stock seed farms of aquatic germplasm resources play a significant role. According to incomplete statistics, the Yangtze River Basin has 26 stock seed farms and seed multiplication farms. 6.4. RESTRICTIONS ON FISHING Restricting fishing is the core of fishery resources management on the Yangtze River. The policy was released by the Ministry of Agriculture since 2002. The enforcement scope of the policy of closed fishing season on the Yangtze River sections in 10 provinces (cities) with a total length of more than 8,100 km. Specifically, the mainstream, the tributaries, the Poyang and Dongting Lake areas. During the closed fishing season(February 1 to April 30 above Gezhou Dam; April 1 to June 30 below Gezhou Dam), all the fishing activities are banned. According to the research results of Shi Weigang et al. (2005), after the implementation of the fishing ban, species diversity index increased significantly and stabilized in the Anhui and Jiangsu sections from 2001 to 2004. The CPUE (catch per unit of effort) in some sections of the river increased significantly, the CPUE of coiliaectenes rebounded, and resource degradation was stopped. The ecological effects of the spring ban on the protection of fishery resources in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River are noticeable, and the interspecific structure of the fishery resources was improved to a certain extent after the implementation of the spring ban. 1014