1.1 Introduction
1.2 Fisheries
China is one of the oldest countries with a recorded history of 4 000 years. The Chinese nation is well known for her great contributions to the evolution of the human society. After the Opium wars in 1840, China was reduced to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. After an extremely brave and protracted struggle for more than one hundred years by the Chinese people, the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949 at last, and since then has followed a socialist road. Through hard work during the last five decades, China has achieved tremendous socio-economic progress and has improved the living conditions of her people. Seventy percent of China’s total population of about 1.2 billion are rural and the rural economy is primarily agricultural. Agriculture contributes about one third of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Agricultural GDP in 1997 was 2 458.7 billion yuan of which fisheries contribution was 228.2 billion yuan, about 9.3%. Aquaculture contributed more than 50% of the gross value of fisheries output. Aquaculture is the fastest growing sub-sector of fisheries; and with a total production of 20.2 million mt in 1997, aquaculture contributed 56.2 percent of total fisheries production. China, the world leader in aquaculture production, produces more than 50% of the world aquaculture production.
1.1.1 Physical geography
China is located in the eastern part of Asia and on the western shore of the Pacific Ocean. China is contiguous to Korea, Russia, Mongolia, Kazakshtan, Kirghizstan, Tadzhikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam (counter clockwise from the east) with her total mainland boundary line of more than 20 000 km. In the east and south, she faces Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Brunei (Fig. 1). China has a vast territory, the distance of the mainland exceeds 5 200 km from east to west and more than 5 500 km from north to south, with a total land area of 9 600 000 km2, the third largest country in the world. As a country of the Pacific Rim, she faces the Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the South China Sea to the east and the south, and has a coastline of 18 000 km. Starting from the mouth of Yalujiang River in the north, which is bounded on by Korea, and stretches southward to the mouth of Beilun River, which is adjacent to Vietnam, there are over 5 400 islands scattered in the sea with a coastline aggregating over 14 000 km. Eighty percent of the islands are scattered over the sea area to the south of the Yangtze River and 20% to the north. Taiwan is the largest island of the country (35 788 km2) and followed by Hainan (34 000 km2), Chongming (1 083 km2), Zhoushan (524 km2), Donghai (317 km2), Haitan (290 km2), Changshandao (229 km2), Dongshan islands (207 km2), etc.
Bohai Sea is an inner sea. The Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the South China Sea are all continental apron seas in the northwest and western Pacific Ocean. The total area of the four seas is about 4.72 million km2. The continental shelf, within isobath of 200 m water depth, covers about 1.4 million km2. There are numerous rivers along the coast with a total of 1 889 billion m3 runoff into the sea every year, that bring large quantities of organic material and nutrients to form a superior habitat for marine animals and plants, which have become most important fishing ground of the country. There are plenty of bays and gulfs distributed along the sea shore. And the vast mudflats and shallow sea water areas form the excellent places for marine aquaculture.
The Chinese continent is high in the west and low in the east. The first step is Qinghai-Xizang plateau, which is more than 4 000 m above the sea level. Mount Qomolongma (the Himalays, 8 848 m), the highest mountain in the world is situated in the southwest edge of the plateau between China and Nepal. Within the boundaries of the plateau, the river system of the continental rivers is well developed. The three large seagoing rivers, the Yangtze River, the Yellow River and the Yarlung Zangbo River, rise in the plateau. The second step is from the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau to the north and east, the average altitude declines to 1 000-2 000 m. It includes the Yunnan-Guizhon Plateau, the Huangtu Plateau, the Inner Mongolia Plateau and the Sichuan Basin, the Talimu Basin and the Zhungeer Basin. The large rivers such as the Helongjiang River, and the Pearl River originate from this area. The third step is along the line of Mount Daxinganling, Mount Taihang and the east edge of the Yunnan-Guizhon Plateau to the east. It mainly consists of vast plains (less than 200 m above sea level) and some small low-lying hilly land (less than 1 000 m). The Northeast, North China and the middle-lower reach of the Yangtze River plains are three major plains which cover a total area of about one million km2, and made up roughly one tenth of China's territory. These are the most densely populated areas of China. On the whole, the Chinese topography is roughly classified into five categories: mountainous regions, 33%; plateaus, 26%; basins, 19%; plains, 12% and hilly areas, 10%. The plains and basins are densely covered with rivers, lakes, ponds and small reservoirs which have become the most important areas for freshwater fisheries, especially freshwater aquaculture.
China has numerous rivers, with over 1 500 of them having drainage basins of 1 000 km2 or more. Most of the rivers, which flow into Pacific Ocean eastward or southeastward in accordance with the topography, belong to the Pacific water system. The major rivers are the Yangtze, the Yellow, the Heilongjiang, the Pearl, the Liaohe, the Haihe, the Huaihe, the Qiantangjiang, the Lanchangjiang rivers and so on. The Yarlung Zanbo River and Nujiang River in the southwest China, which flow across the national territory into the Indian Ocean, belong to the Indian Ocean water system. Only the Eerduosi River in the northwest Xinjiang belongs to the Arctic water system. The total area of the rivers reaches 12 million ha, making up 45% of the total inland water area of the country. The Yangtze River which has a mainstream of 6 300 km long, is the largest river in China and the third longest river in the world. It rises from the northern foot of Mount Tanggula in Qinghai Province, flows through Tibet, Sichuan, Yunnan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu provinces, and finally empties into the East China Sea at Shanghai. Its drainage basin is 1 808 500 km2. The Yellow River, which has a mainstream 5 464 km long, is the second longest river in China. It originates from the northern foot of Mount Bayankala in Qinghai Province, flows through Sichuan, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan provinces and finally empties into Bohai Sea in Shandong Province. Its drainage basin is 752 443 km2. The Huai River originates from Mount Tongbai in Hunan Province, flows through Hubei, Anhui, pours into Hongze lake in Jiangsu Province and finally empties into the Yangtze River with a total length of about 1 000 km and with a drainage basin of 189 000 km2. The natural conditions in the north and in the south of the mainstream of Huai River are significantly different, and have become an important geographical dividing line. The rivers in the south of the Huai River are abundant in water with little change of water level all the year round and does not freeze in winter. However, the rivers in the north, fluctuate greatly in water level and freeze in the winter. There are many inland rivers in the north and west of China. The water sources of these rivers are mainly glaciers on high mountains and melting snow. Besides, there are some seasonal rivers, in which there is usually no water except for rain storms. These rivers flow down to low-lying land; thus lakes are formed, or disappear in deserts. They are of great importance to local irrigation and water supply for human beings and animals, and have a lot to do with the fisheries development as well. The Talilao River in Xinjiang Autonomous Region is the longest inland river in China, with a total length of 2 179 km.
Thousands of lakes dot the vast Chinese landscape. There are more than 2 800 lakes having a water surface of over 1 km2. The total lake surface area covers 75 610 km2. Most lakes are found in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the Qinghai-Xizang plateau. In the former region are scattered most of freshwater lakes and in the latter are mainly scattered saltwater lakes. The well-known lakes include the Boyang Lake, the Dongting Lake, the Taihu Lake, the Hongze Lake, the Chaohu Lake, etc.
China has 84 837 reservoirs (1997) of various kinds, with a water storage capacity of 458.3 billion m3. Among them, there are 397 large-scale reservoir each has a water storage capacity of over 100 million m3, 2 634 medium-scale reservoir each has a water storage capacity of 10-100 million m3, and 81 806 small-scale reservoir each has a water storage capacity of 0.1-10 million m3. Besides, there are 6.2 million mountain reservoirs (the water storage capacity for each reservoir is under 0.1 million m3) with a total storage capacity of 26 billion m3. The total area of the reservoirs cover 2.05 million ha. Those reservoirs located in Guangdong and Jilin provinces are the largest, each making up about 10% of the total area. The reservoirs in Jiangsu, Hubei and Hunan provinces come second, each accounting for 6.5%-7.5%. Those in Henan, Guangxi, Sichuan, Zhejiang, Heilongjiang, Shandong, Liaoning, Inner Mogolia and Xinjiang occupy 3%-6% respectively. The reservoir areas in the rest provinces are all below 3%.
China lies across from north to south 55 degree of latitude covering the tropical, subtropical, and temperate zones, and lies across from east to west more than 60 degree of longitude. The east part facing the sea has a marine climate, and the west part being of high altitude, is dominated by a continental climate. And China is divided as humid, sub humid, semiarid and arid climate zones from east to west. The monsoons exert an extremely remarkable influence on China's climate. The yearly rainfall all over the country is mainly concentrated from May to September and decreases gradually from the southeast to the northwest. An annual precipitation line of 400 mm slanting from the Daxinganling in the northwest through Zhangjiakou and Lanzhou to Lasa in the southwest divides the country into the southeastern part and the northwestern part. The semi-wet region and semi-dry region are also divided by this line. The more to the east the more plentiful the rainfall. A 800 mm isohyte conforms approximately to the line from Qinling to the Huaihe River and forms the dividing line of humid region and the subhumid region. This is an important dividing line which shows the distribution of the yearly precipitation in China - more in the south and less in the north. The Yangtze basin has an annual precipitation of 1 000-1 600 mm, and some places in Guangdong Province, 2 000 mm or more, but the precipitation in most places in the northwest is below 250 mm. The yearly average rainfall of the country is about 630 mm or 6 000 billion m3, of which 2 600 billion m3 forms the water resources of the country.
1.1.2 Demography
There are 23 provinces: Hebei, Shanxi, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, Hainan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Shaaxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Taiwen; 5 autonomous regions: Inner Mogolia, Guangxi, Tibet, Ningxia, Xinjiang; one special administrative region: Hong Kong and 4 municipalities directly under the Central Government: Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing. Under them, there are 668 cities, 332 prefectures and 2 135 counties.
China is well populated. In 1997, estimated total population was 1.236 billion or a density of 128/km2; this represents about one fifth of the world population. The Chinese government has paid the greatest attention to controlling population growth and treated it as a basic state policy for the last 20 years. The birth rate has been dropping gradually from 33.43 per thousand in 1970 to 16.57 per thousand in 1997, and the population growth rate has decreased to 10.06 per thousand. There were 866.37 million people (1997) residing in rural areas and depending primarily on agriculture for their livelihood.
China has 56 nationalities, of which Han nationality is by far the largest, accounting for 94 percent. There are 15 minority nationalities, which have a population of one million and over. They are the Zhuang, the Hui, the Welwuer, the Yi, the Miao, the Man, the Zang, the Mogolian nationalities, etc. Each nationality has her language but Mandarin is the common language used in the country.
1.1.3 Socio-economics
After the foundation of the People's Republic of China, the first three years (1949-1952) was the economic restoration period. The country started to do away with feudal exploitative land ownership system, conducted land reform, established collectivization, and then set up communes. The state worked out and implemented the First Five-Year Plan (1953-1957) for the national economy and social development with great success in every field all over the country. Afterwards, the Great Leap Forward Movement was carried out in 1958 and the Cultural Revolution, a political movement, lasted from 1966 to 1976. The two movements were disastrous to the nation's economy. Since 1978, the state has revised the policies and implemented the policies of “reform and opening to the outside world”. The country's economic system has been largely geared toward the market-oriented economy from the past strictly and highly centralized planning economy and has developed household production responsibility and contract system from collectivization and communization. The people's enthusiasm has been greatly arose. The establishment of the economic zones along the coastal areas such as Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou, Xiamen, Shanghai, Tianjin, Dalian, etc, and joint ventures have drawn a large amount of foreign capital. The national economy developed once again at an unprecedented speed. In 1997, the Chinese GDP reached 7 477.2 billion yuan, an increase of about 9 times against 775.6 billion yuan in 1978.
During the past twenty years, the average growth rate of GNP was 9.8%, much higher than other developing countries and nearly twice higher than the world average level. With the rapid growth in production, the people's living standard has been greatly improved. The yearly income of per head in town or city before 1978 was only 340 yuan and reached 5 160 yuan in 1997, a yearly average rise of 6.2%. Medical care has been improved as well. Serious infectious diseases endangering people's lives have been wiped out. The average expectation of life has exceeded 70. Nine-year compulsory education system has been implemented in the whole country. Culture, science and technology have been further developed.
China is an age-old agricultural country. Now, agriculture is the foundation and most crucial sector of China's economy. In 1997, there were 234.1 million agricultural households, with an agrarian population of 866.37 million, making up 70.1% of the total population. Agriculture includes crops, livestock, forestry and fisheries, contributing 32.8% of the country's GDP. In 1978, agricultural GDP was only 139.7 billion yuan, but by the end of 1997, it had reached 2 458.77 billion yuan, of which food grain and crops, accounted for 1 386.69 billion yuan, 56.4%; forestry, 81.77 billion yuan, 3.3%; livestock, 762.03 billion yuan, 31.0%; fisheries, 228.27 billion yuan, 9.3%. At the same time, per capita net income of rural population grew from 134 yuan in 1978 to 2 090.13 yuan in 1997.
China has a fairly long history both of capture fisheries and aquaculture. But till 1949, the total fisheries production was only 0.45 million mt. Since the founding of New China the government has stressed the development of agriculture including fisheries. Through three years of hard work, by the end of 1952, the total fisheries production ran up to 1.66 million mt, which exceeded the highest output in the Chinese fisheries history. In the course of the First Five-Year Plan (1953-1957), the fisheries production increased at an average annual rate of 13.3% and in 1957 rose up to 3.11 million mt; but due to the implementation of improper policies and mismanagement, at the end of Second Five-Year Plan (1958-1962), it dropped to 2.28 million mt. In the three-year readjustment period (1963-1965), the fisheries production went up again at an average annual increase rate of 9.3%. In the following three Five-Year Plans (1966-1980), the annual production increased only at an average rate of 1.3%, 6.7% and 0.4% in the three Five-Year Plan Period respectively. During the 25 years from 1953 to 1978, the total fisheries production increased by 2.75 million mt, only an average increase of 110 000 mt per year (Table 1).
Since 1978, the government has placed unprecedented emphasis on economic development and modernization of the country with special emphasis on rural economic reform. The fisheries grew up rapidly again. In 1988, China became the third country in the world whose yearly fisheries production was over 10 million mt. Then in 1990 and thereafter, China's annual fisheries production ranked first among the world producers. In 1996, fisheries production broke through 30 million mt, and in 1997 reached 36.01 million mt, contributing more than one fourth to the world total. In the past 20 years, it had the fastest growing period in the history.
According to statistics, there are 447 fishery townships, 6 720 fishery villages and a total of 4 188 127 fishery households, with a fishery population of 18 876 799. There are 12 216 876 fishery labourers. Among them 6 487 377 are part-time labourers. Fishery households, population and labourers accounted for 1.78%, 2.18% and 2.66% of the agricultural households, population and labourers respectively. These fishermen produced 33.36 million mt (1997), making up 92.6% of the total fisheries production of the country. Besides, there are 2 709 state-owned fisheries enterprises with a total staff of 284 829. However, their contribution was only 7.4% of the total production. The average per capita income of fishfarmer/fisherman in 1997 stood at 3 974 yuan, an increase of 148 yuan over the previous year.
1.2.1 Capture fisheries
Capture fisheries, especially marine capture fisheries was the main source of fisheries production in the country. In the early 1950s, about 90 percent of the total fisheries production was contributed by capture fisheries and it still accounted for 74.3% in 1978. Compared with marine capture fisheries, freshwater capture fisheries only provided a small percentage to the total capture fisheries production. In 1997, capture fisheries output was 15.74 million mt, representing making up 43.7% of the total fisheries output, of which, marine capture output was 13.85 million mt, accounting for 38.5% (Table 2). From the taxonomy point of view, there are over 1 500 species of fishes along the coast, but common species with economic value are about 200.
The freshwater capture fisheries is carried out in inland water bodies such as lake, river and reservoir, using various kinds of fishing gears to catch fish, crustacean and mollusc. Just after the founding of New China, freshwater capture was recognized as an important component in fisheries and accordingly priority was given for its development. In 1950, freshwater capture output was about 0.3 million mt, making up one third of the total fisheries output. During 1950s, it went up rapidly with an average yearly output of 0.524 million mt. However, in 1970s the average annual output declined to just over 0.3 million mt. Since 1980, the annual output began to rise and by 1997 it reached 1.88 million mt, respectively 5.2% of the total fisheries production.
Freshwater capture fisheries is widely distributed. About 50-60% of the production come from the Yangtze valley, 10-15% from the Heilongjiang and Nenjiang valleies and 4-6% from the Pearl valley. Apart from 0.62 million full-time fishermen, a considerable number of farmers take this as their side occupation all over the country.
1.2.2 Aquaculture
China is one of the countries which have a long history of aquaculture. Its recorded history of freshwater fish culture is more than 3 000 years. Marine molluscs culture has a recorded history of over 2 000 years. But aquaculture as a whole didn't attract great attention and didn't develop rapidly until the founding of the People's Republic of China. In 1949, aquaculture output in the whole country was only 20 000 mt, making up less than 4.5% of the total fisheries output. As a result of rapid development through half a century, aquaculture output in 1997 exceeded 20 million mt, amounting to 56.3% of the total fisheries output. Aquaculture has not only become the fastest growing sub-sector, it has made China the largest aquaculture producer country in the world.
China is endowed with favourable natural conditions. There are over 32 000 km coastline along mainland and islands, more than 1.3 million ha shallow sea water and mudflats, and about 17.47 million ha freshwater areas including rivers, lakes, reservoirs and ponds, of which more than 6.75 million ha are suitable for aquaculture. From 1978 to 1997, aquaculture output increased from 1.21 million mt to 20.27 million mt, a rise of 19.06 million mt or an average annual growth of 953 259 mt. This is mainly attributed to the following facts: the state has implemented the reformed free market policy to support aquaculture development, especially the production policy with stress upon the implementation of household contract responsibility system with remuneration linked to output. During this period, culture area went up from 2.82 million ha to 5.89 million ha, of which pond culture was 1.99 million ha, lake culture 0.87 million ha, reservoir culture 1.56 million ha, river culture 0.37 million ha, shallow sea culture 167 852 ha, marine bay and gulf culture 180 431 ha and mudflat culture 589 650 ha. In addition, there were 1.3 million ha paddy fields for culture of table fish and 281 403 ha paddy fields for culture of fingerlings. Thanks to the improvement of technology, the average per ha output of freshwater aquaculture in ponds, lakes, reservoirs and rivers rose from 279 kg in 1978 to 2 389 kg in 1997. The marine aquaculture per ha output reached 8 434 kg in 1997.
In 1997 the full-time labourers engaged in aquaculture were 3.29 million, of whom 2.83 million went in for freshwater aquaculture and 0.46 million for marine aquaculture. Besides there were huge part-time labourers engaged in aquaculture. They have become a massive production force. The development of rural aquaculture has given a strong impetus to the social-economic growth in the countryside.
Pond fish culture is the major component of freshwater aquaculture. In 1997, its output was 8.9 million mt, making up 72.25% of the total output of 12.36 million mt. Followed by reservoir culture, the output of which was 1.16 million mt, amounting to 9.42%. Lake culture output was 810 055 mt, accounting for 6.55%; river culture output was 622 275 mt, making up 4.87%; paddy field culture output was 455 083 mt, representing 3.68%, etc. Shallow sea culture output was 3.71 million mt, amounting to 47.02% of the total marine aquaculture output, mudflat culture output was 3.70 million mt, making up 46.86%; and bay and gulf culture output was 484 020 mt, accounting for 6.12%.
In terms of culture varieties, cyprinid holds an overwhelming proportion in freshwater fish culture. The output of silver carp, big head carp, grass carp, black carp and common carp in 1997 stood at 9.13 million mt, making up 73.8% of the total freshwater aquaculture output; marine aquaculture output dominated by shellfish reaching 6.51 million mt, amounting to 82.4% of the total marine aquaculture output; the seaweeds output was 961 365 mt, accounting to 12.2%; fish culture output was 254 979 mt, making up 3.2%; and the output of prawn and crab was 161 601 mt, representing 2.1%. Owing to the facts that artificial breeding of some varieties has achieved successes one after another, and many new varieties have been introduced and transplanted, culture varieties are constantly increasing. Nowadays, there are more than one hundred species cultured. Some culture of high priced species are growing particularly fast. For instance, in 1981 the prawn culture output was only 3 352 mt; however, it reached 219 571 mt in 1991. But the output rushed down to 87 756 mt in 1995 due to the outbreak of prawn disease. Later on it rose again to some extent, but still has not fully recovered. Disease control and water pollution have become important research subjects as they are hindering the development of aquaculture.
China has great potential for further development of freshwater cultivable areas, particularly large and medium-sized water bodies. The potential for further expansion of marine culture is even greater. With the progress of science and technology, and the raising of per ha output, aquaculture is playing an increasingly important part in food security by producing food fish, creating employment and generating income for rural households.
