Just south of our city is Dianchi Lake, the 8th largest body of water in China. While taking our Sunday afternoon walk, we noticed that a strong South wind was pushing some large waves onto the paved sidewalks:
Even though the weather was a bit threatening, other local people were still enjoying a day at the park, including this girl wearing traditional Miao minority clothing:
Due to high levels of pollution, only the hardiest forms of life can survive here. As usual, the fishermen were out in full force attempting to snag some toxic carp for dinner:
The other hardy life form that can survive in the lake is the prolific water hyacinth. On this particular day, we watched workers collect and process them. The south wind was pushing the floating plants into the neck of a channel:
Pairs of workboats pull a seine net, moving a raft of hyacinths under the bridge of the channel:
Once they pass under the bridge, they continue to push the mass of plants toward a couple of processing barges (click here for video: Pushing Hyacinths)
I expected that the barges would dewater the plants and load them into trucks, but was surprised to see them conveyed off the back end and drop back into the water. Perhaps they were being de-mudded? (click here for video: Cleaned Hyacinths)
At that point, another pair of boats wrapped a large, purse seine around the plants, which was eventually pulled to the shore by some other workers:
I would like to tell you why they did all of this, but I don’t know. Any ideas…?
My take is they want to keep water fresh and clean?
I think I read something about their trying to clean the water using the plants as filters. Don’t know if it’s works or not.
Found from wikipedia:
Water hyacinth can be found in large water areas such as Louisiana, or in the Kerala Backwaters in India. In many areas it is an important and pernicious invasive species. In New Zealand it is listed on the National Pest Plant Accord which prevents it from being propagated, distributed or sold.
When not controlled, water hyacinth will cover lakes and ponds entirely; this dramatically impacts water flow, blocks sunlight from reaching native aquatic plants, and starves the water of oxygen, often killing fish (or turtles). The plants also create a prime habitat for mosquitos, the classic vectors of disease, and a species of snail known to host a parasitic flatworm which causes schistosomiasis (snail fever). Directly blamed for starving subsistence farmers in Papua New Guinea, water hyacinth remains a major problem where effective control programs are not in place. Water hyacinth is often problematic in man-made ponds if uncontrolled, but can also provide a food source for gold fish, keep water clean and help to provide oxygen to man-made ponds.
Water hyacinth often invades bodies of water that have been impacted by human activities. For example, the plants can unbalance natural lifecycles in artificial reservoirs or in eutrophied lakes that receive large amounts of nutrients.