Maritime safety authorities have recently mobilised extra manpower to escort vessels that carry cotton pickers across the Jingzhou stretch of the Yangtze. Jingzhou in Hubei province is one of the country’s major cotton production bases. MSA officials have been dispatched to ferry stations to make sure that vessels do not exceed the maximum number of passengers allowed on board. MSA patrol boats are also being deployed to escort ferries across the river.

In a separate development in downstream Yueyang, local MSA officials are cracking down on small vessels carrying passengers illegally. During harvest season, it is quite common for small vessels licensed originally for self use to ferry farm workers for money. On 15 October alone, officials ordered the owners of six such vessels to stop transporting passengers.