Development and Reform of Commercial Fisheries in Yangtze Lakes, China

The total area of lakes for Commercial fisheries in China reaches 1.02 million ha, which is 18% of the total freshwater aquaculture area. With the success of the artificial reproduction of the four domestic carps (silver, bighead, grass and black carps), stock enhanced fisheries became the main production method in the 1960s and 1970s. In the 1980s, semi-intensive and intensive aquaculture methods, including application of fertilizers and artificial feeds, cage aquaculture and enclosure aquaculture, were introduced to lake and reservoir fisheries, which significantly increased the production and income of fish farmers. However, intensive aquaculture has caused serious environmental problems, such as impacting the integrity of ecosystem, exhaustion of natural fisheries resources, decrease of biodiversity and eutrophication. Sustainable development of fisheries in lakes has been receiving unprecedented challenge both from the environment and also from human society. More and more attention has been paid to bring about harmony between fisheries development and environmental protection in the past 10-20 years. Eco-fishery is a solution to this conflict. As a strategy of fisheries reform, it is suggested that high efficient utilization of natural food organisms should be paid more attention in lakes, and lake fisheries development should be based on ecosystem restoration.