The indictment of civil public interest litigation is quietly placed on the table. The defendants are two villagers of electric fishing. Previously, they had been prosecuted for suspected illegal fishing of aquatic products.
Since China's environmental civil public interest litigation practice is based on procedural law, supplemented by relevant judicial interpretations, we are reluctant to quote Article 65 of the Tort Liability Law of the People's Republic of China as the basis of claim, and the calculation of fishery resource damage can only refer to the Calculation Method of Economic Loss from Fishery Pollution Accidents, Because although electric fishing causes the undeveloped aquatic organisms to sink into the bottom, deteriorate, and pollute the water environment, it mainly causes death or damage to various aquatic organisms, damage to the physiological function of fish gonads, and damage to the aquatic food chain. However, the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, which came into force on January 1, 2021, has completely ended this embarrassing situation, enabling us to take "ecological destruction and damage to others" as the basis of claims in substantive law.
Handling such environmental civil public interest litigation cases has deepened our understanding of the importance of the green principle stipulated in the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China. Due to different ages and backgrounds, the two important civil codes of the civil law system, namely the French Civil Code and the German Civil Code, uphold the concept of subject and object, conquest and subjugation in dealing with the relationship between man and nature, which naturally has its historical rationality. With the passage of time, human interference with nature and the ability and degree of acquisition have been strengthened, The environment we live in tends to deteriorate. Based on this, in order to inherit the excellent traditional cultural concept of harmony between heaven, earth and man, and the harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and to reflect the new development concept, the green principle stipulated in the Civil Code includes intra generational, inter generational and inter species justice, which guides us to re understand man and nature We should standardize our own behavior and conscientiously handle every environmental civil public interest litigation case.
Zhuangzi, more than 2000 years ago, had at least an abstract vision of the forbidden method of electric fishing. Therefore, he said, "If a man knows how to change his bow and crossbow, then the birds will become confused; if he knows too much of the bait, then the fish will become confused in the water; if he knows too much of the bait, then the animals will become confused in the water..." But "knowing too much" is a historical trend, and technology is a double-edged sword, To be good is beneficial to society and nature. Failure to abide by rules and ethics will breed disasters; It is impossible not to catch fish. The key is to have the idea of harmonious coexistence and avoid prohibited fishing areas, closed seasons and prohibited tools and methods.
As a result, I recall an ancient fishing method that I used to use when I was a child - fish cage fishing. The so-called fish cage is the "will" in the "Book of Songs", which can be traced back to the late Neolithic Age 4000 years ago, when the ancestors of Qianshanyang in Huzhou, Zhejiang, were already using fish will to fish.
The fish cages are made of bamboo, and there are two kinds. The common point is that the fish can enter and not exit. The cage mouth of the ordinary version is funnel shaped, and a number of elastic strips are straight to the throat of the neck, called the inverted tip, which is connected with an oval cage belly at the back. The mouth is woven with the cut strips, and the fish mouth is located at the throat or the tail of the cage belly; The simplified version is called "tube tube" by Sichuan people. Three sections of Phyllostachys pubescens are cut from one end with a knife to slightly cross the middle section, which is an even odd number (must be odd number) branch. The middle section is flattened from the inside, the bamboo branch is stretched out into a trumpet shape with a bowl, etc., and then woven around the bamboo branch with strips by longitude and latitude method. Finally, a small hole is drilled in the bottom section to facilitate water flow and prevent fish from oxygen deficiency. From the perspective of cost and benefit, the ordinary version has a large cage belly capacity, but it takes a lot of effort to make. It needs the help of adults, and is longer than the early (before the 1970s) when there were more fish; The simplified version is simple and suitable for us to have fun.
The stream at the upstream of Qiupu River is the habitat of shoal and deep pool alternately. At the beginning of the plum rain season every year, we usually select the shoal position in the evening, build a dam (beam) with cobbles in the stream, leave one or two gaps, and place the mouth of the fish cage in the middle of the gap toward the incoming direction, and press it with stones. After a night of waiting, I went to the fish cage in the morning barefoot. At the moment when I lifted it, the adrenaline secreted made my heart beat faster, and my mood was joyful or lost from hope, depending on whether there was a crackle in the cage.
Fish are common species in the Qiupu River, such as meal (fish), broad fin croaker, horse mouth fish, Ma carp, pointed head carp, scaly white turtle and smooth lipped fish, while mullet, chuatsi chuatsi, high body bittern and smooth barbel only stay in the downstream mainstream. The broad fin Zao is commonly known as the red robe, the flower cock, and the smooth lipped fish is commonly known as the grouper, both of which are colorful and of great ornamental value; Jiantou Cake is called Youluzi, which is the willow root among the population in Northeast China. It has abundant and delicious meat and is a sporadic relict species in high altitude mountain areas; The most noteworthy one is the scaly white turtle, which is called the black nosed shark in our local dialect. It is one of the "five famous fish" in China, along with the oily fish and bow fish in Erhai Lake of Yunnan Province, the yellow croaker in Qinghai Lake, and the shad in Fuchun River. In April, the thunder has already struck, and the scaly white turtle flows out in response to the sound. At night, the head faces in, the tail faces out, and half a month goes by. At the end of the day, the fins are orange marriage color. Because they spend nearly half of the year in caves in karst terrain, they are semi cave fish. Their eyes are very small, and their nose degenerates and becomes soft for the convenience of hunting in the dark. Once they are worn through the wicker, they will break, so they get their name. When water rises, it will be titled tail bow body to increase the elasticity of jumping dam. A companion inserted a wooden stick into the stone crack at the head of the barrage used for irrigation and hung the bamboo basket or fish cage. The next morning, there will be half or full baskets of harvest.
This fishing method, in late spring and early summer, the bell mouth does not face downstream, and has little impact on the fish spawning upstream; Small fish that enter the ordinary cage by mistake will be released when we take the fish. When small fish swim through the simplified cage, the water will naturally send them out from the bamboo branches.
Cage fishing can be said to be an economical, convenient and environmentally friendly fishing method, and also the biggest or even the only source of happiness in our childhood. Unfortunately, due to the siltation of the river channel, the spread of ground cages and electric fishing, the fish cages are almost useless.
We sincerely hope that our due diligence can protect the river and let the Qiupu River in our memory regain its noisy and spiritual nature. I believe that in the near future, the ecosystem of the Yangtze River, rivers and lakes will continue to be healthy. I hope that in ten years' time, the "green fishing" method of bamboo cage fishing will also appear in the Jianghu, smoothing the traces in my memory.