Eight guilty of catching, selling rare Yangtze fish

Eight people in Chongqing were prosecuted for illegally fishing, selling and eating endangered fish, including the rare Yangtze River sturgeon, in China's first civil public interest litigation concerning major harm to the rare fish.

The Chinese sturgeon is a species under first-class State protection in China. Due to overfishing and climate change, its wild population has basically disappeared and has been graded as "critically endangered" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List.

The Chongqing No 5 Intermediate People's Court on Tuesday held an open trial on five cases related to the fish.

The prosecutor said that since Jan 1, 2020, the eight defendants had fished, sold and eaten more than 10 kinds of rare fish including the Yangtze River sturgeon, cochineal fish and Yanyuan carp, which are under second-class State protection in China.

The fifth branch of the Chongqing Municipal People's Procuratorate held that the eight defendants breached the law and seriously damaged the biodiversity, aquatic resources and water ecology of the Yangtze River, and damaged social and public interests.

In court, three cases reached mediation agreements－with three defendants having paid a total of nearly 138,000 yuan ($21,700) in ecological restoration and other fees.

Sentencing of the other defendants will be announced at a later date.

As the case involved public interest in the ecological protection and recovery of rare fish stocks, the trial was livestreamed online, and some public representatives also attended.

In recent years, China has stepped up efforts to rescue endangered species in the river by targeting illegal fishing, closing polluting factories and releasing captive-bred fry into the wild.

On Jan 1, 2020, a 10-year comprehensive moratorium, outlawing all types of fishing except that for scientific research, was enacted in the main channel of the Yangtze River, plus its major branches and two large connected lakes.

On March 1, 2021, the Yangtze River Protection Law took effect to strengthen the protection and restoration of the environment in the Yangtze River basin.

One of the cradles of Chinese civilization, the Yangtze River is known as the "mother river", and more than 400 million people get their drinking water from it.

However, economic development has resulted in conflict between progress and protection as environmental issues, such as overfishing, water pollution and soil erosion, have affected the river and residents.

As roughly 691 kilometers of the river runs through Chongqing, the city has concentrated on environmental restoration and protection while avoiding large-scale development, especially after President Xi Jinping's inspection tour of the city in January 2016.

Notable progress in allowing nature to restore itself－to improve water quality, restore biodiversity and control pollution in the Yangtze River basin－has been made in the country.

"The trial has demonstrated the authority of law, and could help improve people's awareness of ecological and environmental protection," said Lin Bizhong, a deputy to the Chongqing Municipal People's Congress, who attended the hearing.

"I hope the court will pay more attention to similar cases and provide better judicial services for the protection of biodiversity in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the 10-year fishing ban."