New push to revive China’s wild yellow croaker fish stocks after Chinese paddlefish goes extinct
- A team in Zhejiang is on a mission to ‘train’ young croakers for life in the open sea with hopes that wild population can grow
Chinese scientists are stepping up efforts to protect yellow croaker fish stocks in the East China Sea by preparing fry for release into the wild, state news agency Xinhua reported on Monday.
The yellow croaker is the most popular sea fish on tables in China, and most of those sold at market are farmed. Wild stocks have dropped dramatically over the past four decades because of overfishing, according to experts.
Last year in the eastern province of Zhejiang, the provincial science department’s rural affairs office launched a project to try to ensure there were 1,000 tonnes of wild croakers in the East China Sea within three years, the report said.
“Wild yellow croaker fish are top among China’s four major sea fish. The [annual] harvest was more than 10,000 tonnes for many years and it was a common dish,” Yan Xiaojun, an ocean biologist from Zhejiang Ocean University, was quoted as saying. “Our generation has the responsibility and obligation to restore wild croaker resources.”
Yan and his team chose an area near the Zhongjieshan archipelago as the base for preparing yellow croakers for the wild.
If the croaker’s survival rate was one in 100 then between 20 million and 200 million fry had to be released to meet the goal of 1,000 tonnes in three years, Yan said.