NANJING, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Authorities in east China's Jiangsu Province have started the annual fish fry release into the sea to increase fish stocks.

The provincial oceanic fishery headquarters on Sunday released the first group of 9 million large yellow croakers into the sea at a fish farm.

The large yellow croaker is a major species of fish off China's eastern coast. To recover the dwindling stocks, the province has released a total of 25 million large yellow croaker fry into marine areas.

The province is expected to release 408 million fry during a fishing ban that starts this month and lasts four and a half months, said Ding Hanming, head of the provincial oceanic fishery headquarters.

During the past 14 years of oceanic fry release, local fishery authorities have released 6 billion fry into the sea, helping to increase the stocks of some commercial fish species, Ding said.