2. Fisheries and aquaculture institutions

2.1 Development and management

2.1.1 Institutions and their organisational structure

The Fisheries Law of PRC mandates that a department of fishery under the State Council be in charge of the administration of fisheries throughout the country. The Bureau of Fisheries under the Ministry of Agriculture is responsible for the country's fisheries and aquaculture development and administration. The Bureau has 17 divisions including the Aquaculture Division (Fig 1). The departments of fisheries under local governments at or above the county level are in charge of fisheries in their respective areas.

Figure 1. Organisational structure, Bureau of Fisheries

Due to changes in social and economic circumstances there were subsequent reorganisations on the structure of fisheries institutions. In 1949, the Aquatic Products Group was under the Ministry of Food and Industry, then it was transferred to the General Bureau of Aquatic Products under the Ministry of Agriculture. With a view to strengthening supply and marketing services support, the General Bureau moved to the Ministry of Commerce in early 1956. On 12 December 1956, the National People's Congress approved the establishment of the Ministry of Aquatic Products in charge of fisheries administration, including fisheries production, processing and marketing management. On 1 May 1970 the Ministry of Aquatic Products was abolished and merged into the newly established Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

It was not until 16 March 1978 that the State Council established the General Bureau of Aquatic Products. This Bureau was merged into the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries. The Bureau of Fisheries Management and Fishing Port Superintendence was set up in 1982 in parallel with the General Bureau of Aquatic Products, mainly to strengthen fisheries management and fisheries law and regulations enforcement.

With government institutional reform in 1989, the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries was renamed the Ministry of Agriculture, and its Bureau of Aquatic Products became the Department of Aquatic Products. Some units were transferred to other Departments under the Ministry. The Department of Aquatic Products and the Bureau of Fisheries Management and Fishing Port Superintendence were recently merged into the Bureau of Fisheries. The fisheries institutional reorganisation has thus come to almost a full circle.

The major functions assigned to the Bureau of Fisheries are as follows:

• Formulation of plans, strategies, policies and programmes for fisheries development.

• Guidance of fisheries economic reform.

• Implementation and monitoring of fisheries laws, regulations and international/bilateral fisheries agreements enforcement.

• Strengthening of fisheries management so as to properly utilise fishery and aquatic resources and to protect fisheries environment.

• Support of fisheries education and scientific research.

• Supervision and administration of fishing vessel safety and superintending of fishing port.

• Administration of fishing boat building, fisheries machinery and gear industries.

The fisheries departments in different provinces and counties have more or less the same functions as the Bureau of Fisheries in their respective areas. They are under direct leadership of their provincial or county governments, and guided by the Bureau of Fisheries.

Other government institutions related to fisheries

The State Oceanic Administration (SOA), a governmental organisation directly under the State Council, which was founded in 1964. At its early stage, it was mainly engaged in ocean observation, marine and coastal zone investigation, marine hydrographic forecasting, marine data and information collection and processing, and research and manufacture of oceanographic instruments. With the development of marine activities and the conclusion of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, there is a need for the comprehensive management of jurisdictional waters. Therefore in 1988 it was appointed as a functional body directly under the State Council, and mainly administers the jurisdictional waters, implements monitoring and surveillance, safeguards the nation's marine rights and interests, coordinates the rational exploitation of marine resources, protects marine resources and the marine environment, and develops and manages public marine services and its facilities.

The National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA, which was founded in 1984 directly under the State Council. It is an administrative department in charge of environmental protection, mainly responsible for unified supervision and management of nation-wide environmental protection according to laws and regulations, the prevention and control of pollution and other public hazards, and the protection and improvement of living environment and ecological system in order to achieve a sustainable, integrated and sound development of economy and society.

The Ministry of Water Resources (MWR)., which is mainly responsible for nation-wide river training and harnessing, irrigation, urban and rural water supply, flood control and drought resistance. The Ministry now is exerting efforts to restructure its investment mechanism, assets management, pricing policies, capacity-building on laws and regulations, and service system.

2.2 Research

2.2.1 Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences (CAFS)

The Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences was founded in 1978. Under the CAFS, there are three integrated marine fisheries research institutes along the coast of the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the South China Sea, and three integrated freshwater fisheries research institutes along the valley of the Yangtze River, the Pearl River and the Heilongjiang River. Under the CAFS are also the Freshwater Fisheries Research Centre, Fishery Machinery and Instrument Research Institute, Fishery Engineering Research Institute, Fish Disease Research Division, Bohai Sea Fishery Enhancement and Scientific Experimental Base (Fig. 2). Basic research on aquaculture development and improvement of culture technology is one of the most important tasks of the CAFS and its institutes. The academy has 1,800 professional staff, more than 300 of whom are senior.

Fig. 2. Organisational structure of the China Academy of Fisheries Science

2.2.2 Local fisheries research institutes

Most provinces and several counties have set up their own research institutes. By the end of 1994, there were more than 180 fisheries research institutes all over the country with a total of 3,400 professional staff, of whom about 300 are senior.

2.2.3 Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)

The Chinese Academy of Sciences, founded in 1949, has 123 research institutes; some of these institutes conduct research work related to fisheries, in the fields of aquatic animal biology and fish taxonomy, microbiology, genetics, etc. They are:

a. Institute of Zoology

b. Institute of Development Biology

c. Institute of Microbiology

d. institute of Aquatic Biology

e. Wuhan Institute of Virology

f. Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences

g. Commission for Integrated Surveys of Natural Resources

h. Institute of Oceanology

i. South China Sea Institute of Oceanology

j. Shenyang Institute of Applied Ecology

2.3 Education and training

2.3.1 Fisheries universities and colleges

The Shanghai Fisheries University, Fisheries College of Oceanology University, Dalian Fisheries College, Xiamen Fisheries College, Zhanjiang Fisheries College and Zhejiang Fisheries College are the premier institutions for fisheries education in the country. All together, they offer more than 23 undergraduate degree courses in freshwater aquaculture, mariculture, marine fisheries, aquatic products processing, fisheries machinery, fishing port engineering, fisheries economics, fisheries management and others. In addition, about 30 agriculture or comprehensive universities offer two-year and four-year aquaculture courses. The Shanghai Fisheries University, Fisheries College of Oceanology University and Dalian Fisheries College have since 1980 offered postgraduate degree courses and have been authorised by the Academic Committee of the State Council to confer doctoral, masters and bachelor's degrees. The graduates have been assigned to work in all parts of the country, with many of them having become the backbone of China's fisheries development.

2.3.2 Fisheries schools

The country has 17 fisheries schools which offer two-year post-secondary training. Fourteen agriculture or water conservation schools also offer two-year aquaculture education to meet local requirements. A total of 196 technical schools provide fisheries technical education to students graduated from middle school. The majority of fisheries school graduates serve the needs of the fisheries industries and fishfarms.

2.3.3 Training

Since the country carried out its open policy and economic reforms, opportunities related to fisheries training have been offered through more than 71 newly-established training centres. Employees' cultural qualities and professional capability have been greatly improved through vocational and on-the-job training. A number of other institutions also offer training courses in the following fields of fisheries:

• Branches of the Shanghai Fisheries University, Dalian Fisheries College, Xiamen Fisheries College and Zhanjiang Fisheries College have conducted fisheries production and management training courses for government employees in charge of fisheries management. By the end of 1989, the four schools had implemented more than 70 training courses, usually three months per course, with participants totalling 1,600.

• The National Fisheries Technology Extension Station in Wuxi (Jiangsu Province), Huzhou (Zhejiang Province), Shunde (Guangdong Province) and Liaoyung (Liaoning Province) are in charge of extension and training. More than 3,000 junior technicians from different provinces have been trained in these stations.

• More than 160 selected undergraduate or postgraduate students and visiting scholars have been sent to universities and research institutes in foreign countries, and about one hundred of them have completed their tasks and come back to the country. For the purpose of improving staff's foreign language, training courses (in English and Japanese) have been organised regularly by DAP and the Shanghai Fisheries University, Dalian Fisheries College, Xiamen Fisheries College and The Pearl River Freshwater Fisheries Research Institute. By the end of 1991, 24 training courses had been completed with an attendance of more than 500 trainees.

• In cooperation with UNDP and FAO, the government established the Asian-Pacific Regional Research and Training Centre for Integrated Fish Farming in Wuxi of Jiangsu Province, which has been warmly welcomed by participants from many developing countries.