Degradation of icefishes (Salangidae) in the Yangtze River basin of China: threats and strategies |
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Authors: | Zhongsuo Wang Jieqiang Shi Chongren Xu Guangchun Lei |
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Institution: | (1) College of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing, 100037, People’s Republic of China;(2) College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, People’s Republic of China |
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Abstract: | The Yangtze River basin has been a major area in terms of icefish diversity conservation and fisheries. In the past two to
five decades, however, the wild icefish resources have degraded continuously in both the brackish estuary and freshwater portions
of the basin. Stocks have declined in all icefish fisheries, resulting in an annual fishing yield decrease from the maximum
of 4,000 metric tons to less than 1,300 metric tons in this river basin. The stocks decline significantly (t = −6.74, df = 1, p < 0.001) correlated with icefish fishing stress in the estuary. Meanwhile, species composition changed markedly with smaller
sized icefish species increased relative to the number of larger ones in terms of their relative abundances. Following the
stocks decline and size reduction, icefish commercial value decreased to the point that 91.9% of the traditional icefish-producing
waters (57 out of 62) terminated their icefish fisheries and some species became locally extinct. Based on the degradation
process, we suggest that these changes in stock size and species diversity are the result of overfishing and habitat loss
and degradation. We propose a number of measures aimed at the conservation and restoration of the wild icefish resources in
the Yangtze River basin. |
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