100kg endangered Chinese bahaba caught in Fujian province

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2014-06-08

The fish. (Internet photo)

China's Fisheries Management Bureau has been investigating media reports that an endangered and protected Chinese bahaba weighing 100kg was sold for three million yuan (US$479,000) in Fujian province, reports the Party-run People's Daily.

The fish has been placed under second-class state protection since numbers dropped to a mere dozen due to industrial pollution in coastal areas and overfishing. Lei Peng, the bureau's enforcement office, said any person capturing rare and endangered species would face a fine ten times that of the catch's value. The person would be fined 10,000 yuan (US$1,599) if no catch was caught.

The report published on Tuesday said a fisherman in Xiabaishi township in Fujian's city of Fu'an, received the fish as a gift from his son-in-law, which is part of a Chinese custom during the Dragon Boat Festival. The report went viral on the internet. Some netizens said the fish is worth a pre-owned house in a city.

The fish's swim bladder is considered a highly valuable medicine. Some people from Hong Kong and Wenzhou dry the swim bladder in the sun and sell them to Chinese medicine stores. The remains are sold to local hotels and restaurants.

The news agency tracked down the fish vendors selling the Chinese bahaba but they said seven of them jointly bid on the fish for 2.75 million yuan (US$439,000) and resold it at 3.15 million yuan (US$503,000) to businessmen from Xiapu in Fujian and Zhejiang province. They heard the fish was sold again to a wealthy merchant from Hong Kong.

Wang Wanhai, an employee at the border office, said that rumors were floating around on June 1 in the township that a fisherman had found and fished out a large fish floating in the water, but the fish has died.

A researcher with the marine and fisheries bureau in Ningde, Fujian province, said the fish grows in the estuaries of rivers and ports. The one found in the town could be 20 to 30 years old and has only been seen once in decades. The species was often caught in the water in Ningde in 1980s but its number has since dwindled to a dozen throughout the country. The prices is inflated from speculation rather than the real value of the collagen-rich fish, said the researcher.