Recently, the continuous high temperature and drought in the Yangtze River Basin have had a great impact on aquaculture and aquatic organisms in natural waters. In order to implement the relevant requirements of the Party group of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and Bureau of Fishery Administration of MARA for drought relief and disaster relief, on August 30, Liu Yingjie, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, led a team to Suzhou, Jiangsu to conduct a survey on fishery drought relief. Zhang Jugui, Researcher of Fisheries Division of Jiangsu Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Li Qiang, Chief of the Dept. of Discipline and Platform of the CAFS, Zhu Jian, member of the Party Committee of FFRC and Chief of the Division of Research, and Gu Donghua, Deputy Director of Suzhou Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affaires, participated in the relevant research activities.

The research team first held a meeting on fishery production, drought relief and disaster relief in Yangcheng Lake Modern Agricultural Industrial Park, Xiangcheng District, Suzhou. Researcher Zhang Jugui briefly introduced the basic situation of high temperature and drought fishery disasters in Jiangsu Province. He said that up to now, 580,000 mu of aquaculture area in Jiangsu Province has been affected by the high temperature, with a loss of more than 14,000 tons of aquatic products, and a direct economic loss of about 620 million yuan, the major affected species is freshwater crab and the main affected area is the hills of southern Jiangsu and areas along Hongze Lake. Deputy Director Gu Donghua introduced the basic situation and countermeasures of the disaster in Suzhou in detail. He pointed out that the continuous high temperature mainly has a great impact on the adult crabs culture in ponds, causing a loss of 20-30% of production and size. Suzhou Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs organized farmers to recover some of their economic losses by purchasing “Meteorological Index Insurance for Pond Culture”.

Vice President Liu Yingjie pointed out that, as the national team of fishery scientific research, FFRC should actively assist Jiangsu Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, effectively connect with the fishery authorities at all levels, and comprehensively do a good job in technical reserves and support.

After the meeting, the research team visited the disaster-stricken crab culture enterprises in Xiangcheng National Modern Agricultural Industrial Park, and carefully asked about the impact of high temperature and drought on fishery production. The research team also took advantage of this opportunity to conduct a field visit on the breeding and aquaculture base of crab seedlings in FFRC.