"One veteran biologist said it was the most positive freshwater conservation story he had seen anywhere in the world in 20 years. It is really fantastic news. It is one of the first times that we can say that government measures have not just worked, but have really improved things, said Sebastien Brosse, of the University of Toulouse in France."
"The world's third largest river, stretching nearly 4,000 miles from glaciers in the Tibetan Plateau to its estuary near Shanghai, was the site of one of the world's most shocking extinction events earlier this century with the demise of the baiji, a freshwater dolphin that was once worshipped as a goddess but was wiped out by pollution, dams, traffic and reckless fishing with electricity and dynamite. Observed numbers of the Yangtze finless porpoise increased from 400 to 600."
Seventy years of ecological decline in the Yangtze River has begun reversing after a 10-year national fishing ban implemented in 2021. The ban used evolutionary game theory to design enforcement and included programs to find alternative employment for fishers. Fish biomass more than doubled and several endangered species showed rebounds. Observed numbers of the Yangtze finless porpoise increased from 400 to 600. The river suffered a major extinction earlier this century with the loss of the baiji due to pollution, dams, traffic, and destructive fishing methods. Recovery remains fragile but shows government measures can produce measurable ecological improvements.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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