The method of collecting and catching eel seedlings of cultured eel

Since eel seedlings have not been artificially incubated up to now, eel seedlings mainly rely on natural harvesting. From late December to March of the following year is the eel seedling flood season. Fishermen in Zhongshan and other places set up nets at the mouth of the Pearl River to catch eel day and night during the rising and falling tides.

Every year after winter mature parent eel from the Pearl River estuary roam to Xisha, Nansha Islands near the deep sea four or five hundred meters to lay eggs and reproduce into young eel, seedling is willow leaf shape, transparent, 10 cm long. After hatching, the eel migrates to the inland river at the mouth of the Pearl River for development and growth through "long-distance tourism". Since eel seedlings have not been artificially incubated up to now, eel seedlings mainly rely on natural harvesting. From late December to March of the following year is the eel seedling flood season. Fishermen in Zhongshan, Foshan and other places set up nets at the mouth of the Pearl River to collect fish day and night during the rising and falling tide. At present, the main methods of collecting eel seedlings along the coast are as follows:

1. Set the net

Large-scale fishing of eel seedlings is carried out by using a fixed net. Most of them are set up in wider and deeper rivers or seashore at night when the tide is high, so that eels can enter the net with the current. Eels are usually caught at high tide at night. The yield of fixed net is high, but there are more dead seedlings, miscellaneous fish and garbage. If a seedling collecting box can be connected to the tail end and the eel seedlings can be caught in time, the survival rate will be improved.

2. Triangular hand-copied net operation

Commonly used triangular hand-copied nets are relatively light, simple structure, generally with 2 small bamboo poles each 1.5 meters long, crossed and put on polyethylene mesh cloth, that is, into triangular dustpan shape. Hand net operation is often carried out by a single person within 1 meter of water depth along the river or shoal, illuminated by flashlight, and fished back and forth in the water. Because of the good quality and high survival rate of eel seedlings fished out by hand-copied nets, they are widely used.

3. Plate net operation

The net is woven with polyethylene or nylon thread, square (generally 3 meters in length and width), the center is a net bag, the mesh is gradually increased from the edge to the center, and the smaller the mesh in the central area, the better. When in use, the elasticity of small bamboo poles is utilized, the four corners of the net are opened, and then the net is put into water near the sluice gate. People operate on the shore, and a long-handled small cloth fishing net is prepared. When the net is about to be lifted from the water surface, the eel seedlings in the net bag are fished out by the small fishing net and put into the seedling container carried with you. This net is easy to operate by one person, and flexible to use. Although the yield is low, the quality of eel seedlings is good and the survival rate is high. Torch, kerosene lamp or carbide lamp can be hung under the board to trap eel seedlings with light to improve the yield.

4. Dragging net operation

Similar to the net shape of fixed tension net, but with a rope that can be pulled at the sleeve net opening, fishing is carried out further offshore. This net can be tied to a wire rope, equipped with a 1 kW motor in front of the sluice to pull back and forth left and right to catch eel seedlings.