Beijing, July 12 (IANS) Around 1.3 billion tiny fish were released into the Yangtze river in China Tuesday in a project launched to "repair" fishing resources affected by the recent drought, officials said.
The ministry of agriculture said the fish were mainly black carps, grass carps, chubs and big-head carps.
The project will also include planting of 9,000 hectares of water weeds as well as dispersal of 21 million shellfish, Xinhua reported.
It was launched by five provinces - Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Anhui and Jiangsu - at the middle and lower reaches of the river, which contribute to about half of the country's output of freshwater products.
Water levels dropped in the Yangtze in a drought that hit late spring, damaging the river's ecological environment.