(200628) -- NANCHANG, June 28, 2020 (Xinhua) -- Members of a Yangtze finless porpoise protection team pose for a group photo on a patrol boat on the Poyang Lake in Hukou County, east China's Jiangxi Province, June 8, 2020. Eight of the 11 team members are fishermen-turned finless porpoise protectors who patrol the Poyang Lake on a daily basis. Their missions include dismantling illegal fishing facilities and preventing unlawful activities that damage the Poyang Lake's fisheries resources. China began a 10-year fishing moratorium from the beginning of this year in 332 conservation areas in the
Xinhua / Alamy Stock Photo
Image ID: 2C4NNE1
(200628) -- NANCHANG, June 28, 2020 (Xinhua) -- Members of a Yangtze finless porpoise protection team pose for a group photo on a patrol boat on the Poyang Lake in Hukou County, east China's Jiangxi Province, June 8, 2020. Eight of the 11 team members are fishermen-turned finless porpoise protectors who patrol the Poyang Lake on a daily basis. Their missions include dismantling illegal fishing facilities and preventing unlawful activities that damage the Poyang Lake's fisheries resources. China began a 10-year fishing moratorium from the beginning of this year in 332 conservation areas in the Yangtze River basin, which will be expanded to all the natural waterways of the country's longest river and its major tributaries from no later than Jan. 1, 2021. This comes after decades of human activities such as water pollution, overfishing, sand excavation and quarrying have caused serious ecological destruction in the Yangtze River basin. In areas around the Poyang Lake, China's largest freshwater lake in the eastern province of Jiangxi, there are more than 300 traditional fishing villages housing over 100,000 residents. Due to the ban, those fishermen will have to bid farewell to their traditional roles and embrace new identities ashore. TO GO WITH Xinhua Headlines: Chinese fishermen embrace new life ashore (Xinhua/Peng Zhaozhi)