From Fishermen to River Wardens: A Decade of Full Fishing Ban Revitalises Chishui River’s Aquatic Ecosystem

Farmers’ Daily，a landmark decade-long full fishing moratorium along the Zunyi stretch of the Chishui River has rewritten the ecological and livelihood landscape of southwest China’s Guizhou Province, turning once seasoned anglers into dedicated river rangers and restoring the river’s depleted aquatic wildlife stocks after decades of overfishing.

Stretching for 236.3 kilometres and accounting for 54.1 percent of the full watercourse, the Zunyi section of Chishui River flows across Chishui, Xishui and Renhuai under Zunyi’s administration. Originating from Yunnan and emptying into the Yangtze in Sichuan, this waterway stands as the first pilot section across the entire Yangtze basin to enforce an all-out fishing suspension back in 2017, kicking off an unprecedented ecological rehabilitation drive spanning ten full calendar years. 

Official figures from China’s Yangtze River Aquatic Organism and Habitat Assessment Bulletin confirm the river’s aquatic biological integrity index has retained a sound ranking for four consecutive years from 2022 through to 2025, marking steady, measurable improvements in in-water ecological conditions.

Local authorities have built up a multi-layered regulatory framework blending rigorous law enforcement, digital monitoring and cross-administrative collaboration to curb illegal fishing activities rampant along the Sichuan-Guizhou borderline. Relevant functional departments have teamed up to block the complete industrial chain of unauthorised fishing, transportation, trading and catering of wild aquatic products, securing convictions for 80 illegal fishing cases and detaining 194 suspects over the past five years. 

A smart monitoring network fitted with 104 high-definition zoom cameras runs round the clock to track high-risk river zones, transmitting real-time footage to a central command hub for immediate on-site law enforcement deployment once violations surface. Cross-border regulatory pacts signed between Guizhou’s Chishui and Sichuan’s Hejiang have united six county-level jurisdictions across two provinces into a synchronised supervision cluster, eliminating administrative barriers to unified river management along upstream and downstream reaches.

Judicial innovation complements field patrols to anchor systematic ecological restoration. A specialised environmental court focusing on Chishui River conservation has been set up since 2021, working alongside research institutions to launch the country’s first dedicated centre combining judicial protection and scientific research for rare endemic fish in the upper Yangtze. Courts allocate ecological compensation funds to targeted captive breeding, population tracking and habitat refurbishment projects, shifting restoration governance from passive post-damage remediation to proactive pre-emptive ecosystem maintenance. 

This integrated judicial-scientific working model generates replicable management formulas applicable to wildlife protection across broader watershed territories.

Hundreds of former fishing households have completed smooth career transition supported by tailored local resettlement policies. More than 200 fishermen covering 138 registered households in Chishui have handed over fishing vessels and nets in exchange for financial compensation and formal ranger employment. 

Another 11 experienced local fishers from Xishui’s retired fishing communities secure full-time patrol posts, drawing regular monthly salaries alongside complete social insurance coverage while safeguarding river resources every working day on board patrol boats. Many of these individuals once earned their entire living from river fishing and previously fell foul of local fishing restrictions; steady post-ban incomes enable them to abandon unsustainable fishing habits and guard the watercourse for future generations.

Major breakthroughs in rare fish breeding signal tangible ecological revival across the basin. Once listed as extinct in the wild, the ancient Yangtze sturgeon has completed natural spawning and hatching within Chishui River waters following field trials led by specialist research teams in April 2025, delivering a milestone for wild population restoration of this prehistoric freshwater species. 

On-site breeding bases nurture parent stocks and fry of indigenous varieties such as Myxocyprinus asiaticus and Procypris rabaudi, with technical teams mastering captive propagation techniques and releasing over half a million rare fish fingerlings into natural waters annually for three successive years. 

Official biodiversity surveys record the total number of native fish species climbing from 123 before the fishing ban to the current tally of 126. As one of the last major tributaries feeding the upper Yangtze without mainstream dams, the Chishui River preserves irreplaceable natural spawning grounds for endemic aquatic creatures native to the Yangtze basin.

Local regulatory bodies keep refining existing governance routines in line with updated national fisheries legislation. Ongoing efforts centre on consistent patrol expansion, public policy outreach and targeted technical optimisation for wild fish proliferation. Further optimisation of cross-provincial law enforcement protocols and scientific restocking schemes will continue consolidating ecological gains accumulated throughout the decade-long protection campaign, sustaining the river’s thriving aquatic ecosystem into subsequent years.