In China, fishing in the Yellow River is prohibited for three months a year to preserve biodiversity

The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture has announced that fishing in the Yellow River (Huanghe) is prohibited from 1 April to 30 June as of this year.

The aim is to protect aquatic organisms in the river basin from overfishing. The decision holds not only for the river itself but also for its 13 main tributaries and the three lakes linked to it.

China had already imposed an annual prohibition on fishing in 2002 in the Blue River (Yangtze). The Yellow River is the second longest river in China after the Yangtze.

The issue of overfishing obviously also concerns the oceans, due to the strong pressure exerted by human beings on water whether salt or fresh. Industrial fishing exploits at least 55% of the world’s ocean surface area, i.e. more than 4 times the surface area covered by terrestrial agriculture. This is the conclusion of a wide-ranging study published in the journal Science at the end of February that shows the global footprint of fishing.