North China's largest lake introduces fishing moratorium

A five-year fishing moratorium will be introduced to help Hulun Lake, the largest freshwater lake in north China, rehabilitate its dwindling aquatic resources.

Sources with the municipal government of Hulun Buir said on Sunday that the core nature reserve, nearly half of the 2,339 square km lake area, will stick to the moratorium till December 2018, while the other part will be subjected to an annual fishing ban between May 1 and July 31 from this year to 2018.

Dubbed as "kidney of the grassland", the huge body of water -- the fourth largest freshwater lake in the country -- on Hulun Buir Grassland, was included on the list of internationally important wetlands in 2001.

However, excessive exploitation and desertification has been attributed to the lake's shrinking and falling amount of fishing resources.

During the moratorium, the government will cap the annual fish haul at 1,000 tonnes, which was a quarter of last year's total harvest.

The Central Government has appropriated an annual subsidy of 15 million yuan ($2.4 million) to help Hulun Buir to change its economic focus from fishing to other production and move people out of the lake area from 2014 to 2018.

Xu Qiuhui, a police officer in the lake area, said the public security bureau has stepped up patrols targeting illegal fishing activities.