WUHAN, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- A three-month fishing ban on the Yangtze River imposed by the Ministry of Agriculture will take effect this Thursday.

    Fishing boats will be banned from trawling 1,000 kilometers of the river in central China's Hubei Province and southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. In Hubei alone, more than 600 fishing boats and 1,000 fishermen will be affected.

    Fishing bans on another 700-kilometer stretch of the Yangtze River and a 970-kilometer stretch of its tributary Hanjiang River will take effect from April 1 to June 30.

    The government said fishing bans on the Yangtze River -- introduced in 2002 to conserve aquatic resources -- have had some effect.

    According to Hubei officials, 320 million fries of herring, grass carp, chub and bighead fish have been released into the river and fishermen's catches have increased by 50 percent since 2002.

    The Yangtze River has long been regarded as the "cradle of China's freshwater fishery and a valuable bank of fish genes". However, excessive fishing in recent years has put some varieties of fishes on the brink of distinction.