China’s 10-year Yangtze fishing ban shows early recovery signs, with 8 fish species growing larger and 10 maturing more often

China’s ambitious decade-long ban on commercial fishing in the Yangtze River is reportedly showing encouraging early signs of ecological recovery. According to a 2026 study published in Acta Hydrobiologica Sinica , researchers examining long-term fish-monitoring data found that eight fish species exhibited significant increases in body size; meanwhile, 10 species showed a higher proportion of sexually mature individuals after the implementation of the 10-year ban on commercial fishing in 2021. Notably, scientists caution that this recovery remains in its early stages; however, they suggest that the findings provide some of the strongest biological evidence yet that the world’s largest freshwater fish conservation programme is beginning to change decades of overfishing and population decline.

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