BEIJING, April 21 -- Some residents in northeast China are saying no to eating the traditional dish "river opening fish," made with the first batch of fish caught from Wusuli River in the spring, in a bid to conserve the river's food resources.

    Yu Yuming, a retired environment protection engineer, recently started the initiative and has called on people not to catch, sell and eat fish from the Wusuli River in Helongjiang Province, according to a report on the website Xinhuanet.com.

    Locals believe that fish caught in the Wusuli River when it thaws in mid-to-late April tastes better, because their meat has become more solid from eating less during the winter.

    "Catching and eating 'river opening fish' has a history of hundreds of years," Wu Huanjun, a fisherman in Raohe county in Helongjiang Province, was quoted as saying in the report. "In my childhood, the first batch of fish caught from the melting river was not for sale, but for dishes shared by our family."

    Wu is from the Hezhe ethnic group, which makes a living catching and selling fish and is one of the smallest ethnic groups in China. He said he would not eat "river opening fish" this year to show his support for public efforts to protect the environment, according to the report. He also pointed out that some fish sellers are charging 400 yuan, or 57 US dollars per kilo of fish this year - a record high price.

    Xue Shouping, a taxi driver in Harbin, the capital of Helongjiang Province, joined the initiative and raised money to purchase fish fry and release them in the Wusuli River.

    "To say no to 'river opening fish' is just the first step to protect the river's ecology, and we hope more and more people will join us," Xue said in the report.

    The 1,900-kilometer-long river once cultivated 40 million kilograms of fish annually. But the output has been decreasing drastically in recent years because of overfishing and pollution, the report said.

    (Source: CRIENGLISH.com)