Zealous senior breeder in Tianjin helps nation's fish flourish

Every day at 5 am, 90-year-old Jin Wanku, a passionate fish breeder living in Ninghe district of Tianjin, gets up to check on the baby fish in his breeding pool, regardless of his age, the weather or the ongoing epidemic.

Jin holds a number of titles, including director of the Tianjin Cyprinus and Crucian Genetic Breeding Center of the Ministry of the Rural and Agricultural Affairs and of the Tianjin Freshwater Fish Genetic Breeding Laboratory, to name a few.

"Examining fish and observing their growth is something I've done my whole life," he said, adding that since the 1950s, he has been conducting research into genetic breeding, new breeds and the promotion of quality fish.

To date, Jin has 12 national-level patents, and the number of fish bred as a result of his research amounts to 6 billion a year, according to the Guangming Daily newspaper.

His first batch dates back to 1956. While working at a fish farming organization, he was given 3,000 fish fry.

Thanks to the efforts of Jin and his colleagues, those 3,000 fry produced over 1 million offspring by 1961, and the farm became the first of its kind in North China.