China's decade-long ban on commercial fishing in the Yangtze River — the longest river in Asia and the third-longest in the world — is delivering extraordinary results. According to a landmark study published in the journal Science, fish populations have more than doubled in just two years, and endangered species are making a remarkable comeback.

A River Under Siege

Stretching nearly 4,000 miles from the Tibetan Plateau to the East China Sea, the Yangtze supports over 400 million people. But decades of industrial pollution, overfishing, dam construction, and habitat destruction had pushed the river's ecosystem to the brink of collapse.

The most devastating symbol of that decline was the extinction of the baiji, a freshwater dolphin once revered in Chinese mythology, declared functionally extinct in 2006. It was a wake-up call that could no longer be ignored.

A Bold $3 Billion Gamble

In 2021, China's central government enacted a full 10-year fishing ban across the Yangtze and many of its major tributaries — one of the most ambitious freshwater conservation efforts ever attempted anywhere in the world.

The ban was strategically designed using evolutionary game theory, balancing ecological goals with social needs. Roughly 200,000 fishers were offered compensation and help finding alternative employment, backed by a government investment of approximately $3 billion. Around 100,000 fishing boats were decommissioned.

The Results Are Staggering

The research, led by Fangyuan Xiong of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, compared data from the two years before the ban (2019-2020) with the two years after (2022-2023). The findings exceeded expectations:

• Fish biomass more than doubled across surveyed sections of the river
• Species diversity increased significantly, with rare fish returning to areas where they hadn't been seen in years
• The Yangtze finless porpoise, once critically endangered, is showing signs of population recovery
• Several endangered species that scientists feared were on the verge of extinction are rebounding

"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 Sébastien Brosse, a biologist at the University of Toulouse and co-author of the study.

A Blueprint for the World

The Yangtze's recovery is being closely watched by conservationists worldwide. Freshwater ecosystems are among the most threatened on Earth, and the success of China's approach demonstrates that even severely degraded rivers can recover when given the chance — and when governments commit the resources needed to make it happen.

The ban still has six years to run. If recovery continues at this pace, the Yangtze could become one of the greatest freshwater restoration success stories in human history. 🐟🌊✨

Source: The Optimist Daily · Study published in Science