Six men who had already received suspended prison
sentences for illegal fishing of rare species appeared in a Shanghai
court on Tuesday - World Oceans Day - to face public interest civil
litigation for their wrongdoing.
It was the first civil litigation case regarding public interest in
the field of environmental protection heard by the Shanghai Maritime
Court since China's Yangtze River Protection Law came into force in
March.
Prosecutors from the No 3 Branch of the Shanghai People's
Procuratorate asked the court to order monetary compensation for
environmental damage totaling 810,000 yuan ($126,700) and demanded the
men make public apologies.
The prosecutors said that between May 4 and May 10 last year, two of
the defendants, surnamed Jiang and Zhou, organized three others to drive
a boat in key areas of the Yangtze River and near Shanghai's Chongming
Island and put down several deepwater nets.
The three caught as much as 1.4 metric tons of rare fish species - daoyu and fengweiyu
- from the areas, where fishing is banned. Jiang and Zhou then sold the
fish. They hired another man to transport the fish to a food market and
he also helped sell them.
After receiving reports from the public, police caught the three men
on May 10 in the act of catching fish. In December, the six men were
sentenced to prison terms ranging from one year and three months to two
years by a Shanghai court after being found guilty of illegal fishing
and then put on probation.
Daoyu, also known as knife fish by locals, is a seasonal
delicacy in China but its population has been severely threatened by
overfishing. At the beginning of 2019, the country imposed a complete
fishing ban in key areas along the Yangtze River.
"The six lawbreakers used forbidden fishing equipment to fish for
profit within the aquatic resource conservation areas despite knowing
that the main stream and important tributaries of the Yangtze River were
subject to a year-round fishing ban," the prosecutors said during
Tuesday's hearing.
Zhang Yinjiang, a professor from the College of Marine Ecology and
Environment at Shanghai Ocean University, said: "Changes in one or two
species of fish may pass to others along the food chain and affect the
productivity of phytoplankton. This may eventually lead to the collapse
of the entire river ecosystem."
The six defendants said in their final statements that they sincerely
apologized for their mistakes and were willing to accept legal
sanctions. The court said it will announce its judgment later.
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