Giant salamanders with gold collars swim into the market

On August 4, at the breeding base of the Jishui Giant Salamander Breeding Professional Cooperative in Jiyuan City, Henan Province, this writer saw technicians fitting identification tags onto several giant salamanders about to be sold to Beijing.

This is a kind of identity tag with an embedded smart chip. Because it fits exactly around the giant salamander's neck, cooperative head Han Dong vividly calls it a "gold collar." "With it, farmed giant salamanders can enter the market without any obstacles, and we can breed and sell with peace of mind!" Han Dong said happily.

This writer took out a mobile phone, opened the "scan" function, and scanned the QR code on this round identification tag. Information such as the weight of this giant salamander, its place of origin, the tagging time and the tagging unit was clear at a glance.

Fishery administration technicians accompanying the interview told this writer that to prevent the tags from being reused and to allow tracing if problems arise, all tags cannot be removed once fitted. Every giant salamander about to be sold must wear such a tag around its neck; it is each giant salamander's unique "ID card."

In 2009, under the guidance of the fishery administration department, Jiyuan City's first giant salamander breeding professional cooperative, the Jishui Giant Salamander Breeding Professional Cooperative, was established. Cooperative head Han Taiguo and others, on the one hand, went to Hanzhong in Shaanxi and other places to introduce giant salamander fry, and on the other hand, hired technicians at high salaries. Using the high altitude and large temperature differences of the Wangwu Mountain area, they imitated the giant salamander's living environment and actively explored imitation-ecological breeding technology for giant salamanders.

In 2013, the cooperative succeeded in imitation-ecological breeding of giant salamanders, achieving a zero breakthrough for Henan Province in imitation-ecological breeding of giant salamanders. Over the past 3 years, the survival rate of giant salamander fry has risen from less than 50% at the beginning to 95%. So far, Jiyuan City has 5 giant salamander breeding professional cooperatives, more than 150 member households, and about 180,000 farmed giant salamanders.

With the massive breeding of second-generation and third-generation offspring, edible giant salamanders have gradually entered ordinary households, and some breeders have thus gained considerable income.

"A few years ago, when people talked about eating giant salamander, most would find it incredible. Now, my restaurant can 'eat up' over a thousand giant salamanders every year," said Jia Jianping, who runs a specialty restaurant in Fanzhuang Village, Jiyuan City. Jia Jianping is also the head of the Jiyuan City Sturgeon and Giant Salamander Breeding Cooperative. Since the cooperative was established in 2011, its breeding scale has gradually expanded. At present, it breeds 60,000 giant salamanders and 50,000 sturgeons, and within the next two years giant salamanders and sturgeons will each reach 100,000.

As breeding technology has gradually matured, the giant salamander market has developed from being mainly based on selling fry a few years ago to being mainly based on edible commercial giant salamanders. Since last year, Jia Jianping has, on the one hand, continued to contact Guangzhou, Beijing and other places to sell commercial giant salamanders, and on the other hand, opened his own restaurant to run specialty giant salamander cuisine. Many people from Zhengzhou, Luoyang and Jiaozuo come to taste it after hearing about it. So far, two franchise stores have opened in Xin'an and Longmen in Luoyang, and a restaurant in Gongyi has also sent people to learn cooking. "Next, we will also develop specialty giant salamander products such as 'giant salamander pot,'" Jia Jianping said with full confidence.

The success of artificial breeding has in turn promoted the protection of wild giant salamander resources. Wang Qiang and Wang Dongqiang, brothers from Linshan Village, Wangwu Town, Jiyuan City, told this writer that over the past two years they have been able to hear the calls of wild giant salamanders every night. "It is as if our own child had been lost for many years and has now come back," said 42-year-old Wang Qiang, which made him feel as if he had returned to childhood.

Feng Shujuan