"Lobster King" Zhai Yongfei

Zhai Yongfei, a farmer from Xiaohuazheng Village, Huilong Town, Qidong City, Jiangsu Province, can be called the "lobster king." in addition to his annual sales of millions of kilograms of lobster, he also has the successful implementation of lobster breeding technology, as well as his laurel as a deputy to the Qidong City people's Congress. Although the lobster business is going well and the inner circle is envied by people, Zhai Yongfei lamented in an interview on April 22: "the lobster business is getting softer and softer." Why? He is worried about the lack of lobster, small size and being killed by drugs.

How come there are only a few shrimps in the basket?

When it comes to lobster, what worries Zhai Yongfei most is that in recent years, the seemingly inexhaustible resources of wild lobster have been shrinking. "Farmers used to sell whole bags of shrimp in baskets, but now they often carry half a jin, eight taels or even buckling index tails." Zhai Yongfei is most distressed by the crayfish, which are only five or six centimeters tall. "you can't wait for boiled crabs to be red." If the shrimp grows for a few more months, its weight will increase several times, and the unit price will rise from three or four yuan to more than 10 yuan per 500 grams. With endless overfishing, there is no time for lobster to grow. " Zhai Yongfei said that in April and May 2004, daily lobster purchases reached an astonishing 50, 000 or 60, 000 kilograms, but now it is less than 10, 000 kilograms.

"from day to night, it's hard to catch ten or eight lobsters in a dozen shrimps." Wu Xilin, an old farmer over 70 in Songqiao Village, Wangbao Town, sighed. In the past, braised lobster was an important extra income for the old couple. "now it's hard to drink a few meals of old wine with lobster." The old man smacked his lips and said, "all the year round, it is difficult for lobsters to escape, not to mention children and grandchildren." "if you want to talk about the per unit yield of lobster, it's only ten or twenty kilos. Seven or eight years ago, there were at least 100 kilograms. " A village cadre could not help feeling sad when he talked about the wild lobster that had bulged the pockets of thousands of families.

The empty lobster issued a warning to people.

Early spring is the breeding season for lobsters after hibernation, when lobsters bear the important task of reproducing offspring. At this time, eating one lobster is equivalent to eating thousands of descendants. Unfortunately, at this time, many restaurants in the city launched lobster banquets in advance to attract customers. As a result, lobster gizzards in the countryside were launched early, and a large number of "parents" who were waiting to breed suffered, and there were many "empty shrimps" that had just bred their young, which were very large but had no meat. When introducing this situation, Zhai Yongfei, who has been familiar with the law of lobster growth and development for many years, seems very helpless.

"I can't eat like this anymore!" On many occasions, especially during the activities of NPC deputies and visits by leaders and media interviews, Zhai Yongfei always cried out for the proposal of "establishing a no-fishing period for lobster." "in these 100 days at the beginning of the year and the end of the year, lobster hunting should be prohibited. Lobsters have a very strong ability to reproduce. If there is enough shrimp to grow and grow, there will be a very gratifying return after spring. Ordinary people also understand this truth, but it requires the government and fisheries departments to take tough measures, such as banning market trading and restaurant cooking and sales. without the temptation of interests, farmers will not 'kill the goose that lays the golden eggs' and catch 'parents' shrimp in early spring. "

Why is the proportion of dead lobsters suddenly high?

After lobster fishing, there will be a certain percentage of mortality, but Zhai Yongfei recently found that more outsiders come to sell shrimp, and the mortality rate of lobsters they sell is particularly high. After many inquiries, Zhai Yongfei finally understood that it was a group of outsiders who used a low-toxic pesticide to catch lobster under the cover of nightfall, and the lobster almost "swept away" all the ditches and rivers that they had patronized. Such a ruthless medicinal shrimp not only poses a serious threat to food safety, but also causes a devastating blow to lobster resources. "if the wind is strong, there will be no shrimp!" Zhai Yongfei showed boundless indignation at this. The author learned that because these poachers choose to commit crimes at night, the opposition of the old, weak, women and children in rural areas is not enough to deter it, so these people appear to have no scruples in carrying out the theft operation.

During the interview with Zhai Yongfei, a village cadre in Shuangxian Village, Beixin Town, also reflected to the author that the lobster resources in his village were also killed by foreign "ghosts". "the farmers are distressed by the killing of both big and small, especially many elderly people who rely on lobster for pocket money." This is how the village cadre described the response of the masses.

"Little lobster is a treasure given by God." "the output of lobster alone on the city's more than 200,000 mu of water surface is as high as hundreds of millions of yuan." "the price of shrimp is higher than the price of meat, and the significance of protecting lobster is far from being matched by simply growing good grain and cotton." In the interview around the topic of lobster, countless people expressed the same voice as Zhai Yongfei.