River interlaces each other and lakesare densely distributed. There are about 100 rivers of different sizes, all ofwhich belong to the Yangtze River system. The main rivers include Yangtze Rivermain stream, and its tributaries like Songzi River, Hudu River, Ouchi River,Tiaoxian River, etc. Jingzhou is rich with lakes, 30 of which exceed anarea of 1,000 mu. The total lake area is 80,000 hectares, with Honghu Lakebeing the biggest of Hubei province, 35,000 hectares, followed by Changhu Lake,12,000 hectares.

  
There is a large portion of water area in Jingzhou, a region with rich wetlandresources mainly in bottomland and lakes. In history, the natural fishing is the main form of fishing industry. In1952, there was only 1,000 hectares of aquaculture area. Later more waters havebeen developed and utilized, and in 1988, the total developed aquaculture areareached 72,900 hectares, with pond taking 48%, lake 37.7%, and reservoir 5.4%.