Jiangyin city in Jiangsu province?hosts a fingerling propagation and releasing event at Jiucai Port on June 19. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Jiangyin city in Jiangsu province arranged a fingerling propagation and releasing event at Jiucai Port on June 19.

With the roar of a siren, the volunteers gently poured the fingerlings -- small fish that are up to one year old -- into the water. About 6.05 million, among which 1.38 million were puffer fingerlings, were released into the Yangtze River.

The event has been held for 18 consecutive years and accumulatively released more than 160 million fingerlings, including puffer and silver carp. They are expected to enrich aquatic resources and help restore the ecological environment of the whole river.

"In 2001, the wild puffer was almost extinct. But more and more puffers have been found in the river since 2008, showing the effects of artificial releasing. We need to take more efforts to enrich the species," said Zheng Jinliang, who has been engaging in fishery seeds breeding for years. Zheng has taken part in the releasing event since it launched and released 23.17 million puffer fingerlings to the river.

To raise people's awareness of ecological protection and encourage them to take part in the fingerling releasing, Jiangyin designated June 16 as "Yangtze River Releasing Day".

Jiangyin Party Secretary Chen Jinhu attends the event. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Ding Jianying, an official in charge of agriculture and water-related affairs, explained that related monitoring statistics showed that the propagation and releasing activities were efficient in enriching fishery resources and restoring the aquatic ecological environment. Some fishermen even caught wild puffers. Cowfishes can also been regularly seen swimming in the river.

The city plans to arrange another two fingerling propagation and releasing activities in the second half of this year.