Five years after China banned fishing across the Yangtze River basin, fish are bigger, more diverse and more abundant — but the recovery is the work of more than the ban alone, a mid-term assessment in The Innovation Water concludes.
The ten-year fishing ban, fully implemented in 2021, covers the Yangtze mainstem, the Yangtze estuary, two major connected lakes (Poyang and Dongting), eight key tributaries and 332 aquatic protected areas. Freshwater ecosystems rank among the world's most threatened, and whether removing fishing pressure can restore a river of this scale had not been systematically tested.
A team led by first authors Qin Li, Jia Kuang and Juan Du, with corresponding authors Xinbin Duan and Haijun Wang, integrated data from 108 national aquatic-life monitoring stations, follow-up surveys of 3,881 former fishers, industry statistics and enforcement records into a framework spanning four dimensions: ecology, society, economy and governance.
The ecological signals are broad. Average fish body length rose from 21.7 centimeters in 2021 to 24.3 centimeters in 2024, and the trend toward smaller individuals caused by years of overfishing may be reversing: large-bodied "four major Chinese carps" became relatively more abundant. Fish species richness increased significantly, and the Yangtze finless porpoise, an endangered flagship species, showed positive signs of recovery. Community-weighted trophic level climbed from 3.03 to 3.09, with secondary consumers rising from 65.2% to 78.5% of the community. The Index of Biotic Integrity improved across key waters between 2021 and 2025, gaining two to three grades in the mainstem and the two lakes. Yet recovery was uneven across river sections and lakes; hydrology, habitat condition and extreme climate still shape its pace.
The policy's social machinery mattered as much. More than 231,000 fishers and 111,000 boats left the fishery, supported by employment placement, pension insurance and social assistance. Among tracked fishers, livelihoods stabilized after 2022: 52.8% of households drew on two or more income sources, and household income per capita approached or exceeded the local rural average. Joint enforcement — video surveillance, drones, radar and grid patrols — coincided with clear declines in illegal-fishing cases from 2021 to 2025.
The authors conclude that recovery reflects the combined effect of reduced fishing pressure, livelihood transition, basin-scale governance and industrial restructuring toward aquaculture and recreational fisheries. Habitat fragmentation, altered hydrology, insufficient river–lake connectivity and climate extremes remain unresolved. The next five years should prioritize habitat restoration and spatially differentiated adaptive management — a window that matters for the Chinese sturgeon, the Yangtze sturgeon and the finless porpoise.
