An annual three-month fishing ban will start next month on the Yangtze River in order to preserve stocks of fish, authorities said Saturday.

The ban, which will be in place from April 1 to June 30, will also take effect on the Hanjiang River, a key tributary of the Yangtze River that flows through central China's Hubei province, said officials with the government of the provincial capital of Wuhan.

All fishing activity and other actions that may threaten fish will be banned on the rivers during the period, while fishermen affected by the ban will receive subsidies. The government of Wuhuan will release about 50 million young fish into the rivers during the ban.

The seasonal ban has been in place since 2002 and is considered crucial for the protection of the Yangtze's fishery resources.

A three-month fishing ban began for Poyang Lake, the largest freshwater lake in the country, on March 20. Local authorities in east China's Jiangxi province enacted the ban to protect fishery resources on the lake during egg-laying season.

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