Current Fish Resources in Upper Ueaches of the Yangtze River and Conservation Strategies

Investigations to fish resource in upper reaches of the Yangtze River were conducted from 2011 to 2012. The 5 sampling localities were Yibin, Hejiang, Mudong, Wanzhou and Zigui. Among them, Yibin and Hejiang are in the upstream, Mudong is at the end of the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR), while Wanzhou and Zigui are in the inundated areas of the TGR. During our investigation, we collected 56, 94, 93, 67 and 64 fish species respectively from these 5 localities. Among them, 13, 21, 17, 4 and 4 are endemic species to upper Yangtze. CPUE calculated with pooled data were 1221.6 g, 6433.9 g, 3113.2 g, 2631.3 g and 6196.4 g respectively for the same 5 localities. Because Yibin and Hejiang are still in the riverine state, there are still many endemic species. These areas are also in the national protected areas range, we suggest that commercial fishing should be banned in the future to protect the endemic fish species. However, for Wanzhou and Zigui, because they are in the inundated reservoir area, the dominant species have shifted from riverine species to lacustrine species. The fisheries strategies should also be changed to fishing different species, employ different fishing gears, and apply different management strategy.