November 2001

 LOCATION OF MAIN LANDING PLACES

As a large fishery country, China has a well developed marine capture industry. Most fishery centres are located in coastal areas, in major fish landing regions in Eastern China, which are also major fishery marketing places. Fishery products are collected and distributed through the aquatic products wholesale markets, of which there are more than 380.  Of these, 13 wholesale markets are designated by the Ministry of Agriculture as an “aquatic products central wholesale market,” and one market (Guangzhou) is the “aquatic products wholesale market of the experimental unit of the Ministry of Agriculture.” These aquatic products wholesale markets are located in Weihai (Shandong), Yangpu (Shanghai), Zhoushan Shenjiamen (Zhejiang), Wenzhou Pingyang (Zhejiang), Ningbo Lulin (Zhejiang), Shipu (Ningbo, Zhejiang), Fuzhou (Fujian), Guangzhou Huangsha (Guangdong), Beihai (Guangxi) and Nanjing (Jiangsu). In traditional distribution sites, the annual trading volume could be from thousands of tonnes to several tens of thousands of tonnes, while in some large-scale distributing sites and wholesale markets the annual trading volume could be from one to over two hundred thousand tonnes, with the fairly large-scale aquatic products wholesale markets situated in Rizhao (Shandong), Shouguang (Shandong), Shanghai Central Wholesale Market, Xiamen Dongdu (Fujian), Nanhai City (Guangdong) and Qidong (Jiangsu). The table shows the main landing places in 1999 according to information available.

2.  FISHERIES MANAGEMENT

2.1  Overall strategy

2.1.1  Fisheries administration system

The fisheries administration system in China consists of the Bureau of Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture, as the top administrative level, and each local fisheries bureau at provincial or municipal level as the base institutes. The fisheries administrations of each level are responsible for the implementation of the fisheries laws and regulations. The Bureau of Fisheries is also called the Bureau of Fisheries Management and Fishing Port Superintendence, People’s Republic of China. The subsidiary bodies and branches of the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries Law Enforcement Command of China coordinates fisheries law enforcement, while the Fisheries Management and Fishing Port Superintendence Bureau for each regional sea (Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea; East China Sea; South China Sea) is responsible for regional fisheries law enforcement. The Bureau of Fishing Vessel Inspection, Ministry of Agriculture, is responsible for the legal and technical inspection of vessels. There are local fisheries administrations established in every province, major fishery cities and counties that are under the supervision of local governments. Moreover, there are fisheries law enforcement agencies or fisheries resource management commissions in large inland water areas and major ports. Fisheries environment monitoring stations in major seas and inland water areas exist throughout the country.

Other organizations and institutes involved in or related to fisheries management include: China Fisheries Society; China Fisheries Association; China Fishing Vessel Owners Insurance Association; National Centre for Fisheries Technology Extension; the Fisheries Technology Extension Agency of each province, city and autonomous region; China Fisheries Products Marketing and Processing Association; and fisheries scientific research and education institutes.

2.1.2  Fisheries management

Fisheries management in China includes fisheries law enforcement, fishing port superintendence and safety, fishery criteria, management of aquaculture pharmaceutical production, and fishing vessel inspection.

Fishery law enforcement is based on principles of:

Ø         Manage Fishery by Laws and Regulations,

Ø         Strengthen Law Implementation and Enforcement,

Ø         Justice is Impartial, and

Ø         Serve the Fisheries.

By the end of 1999, China had 2 100 fisheries law enforcement agencies with 30 000 enforcement staff and 2 000 fishery law enforcement vessels. Besides fishery law enforcement cruises for inspection purposes in the EEZ, they are also in charge of fishery law enforcement on the large inland rivers, lakes and boundary waters. The Catch Permission System is conducted according to the Fishery Law of the People’s Republic of China, including input and output controls, namely control of fishing vessel numbers, close areas and close seasons, limits on permitted juvenile fish by-catch, and catch size limits.

Fishing port superintendence includes marine fishing vessel safety checks, port management, navigation marks management and crew training.

By the end of 1999, China has had 377 national and industrial standards for fishery products, with a National Fishery Criteria Commission and a National Fishing Vessel Criteria Commission.

Fish pharmaceutical production and its management are included in the management of aquaculture. By the end of 1999, there were 113 special fish pharmaceutical factories in China, with an annual output of 23 000 t, worth Yuan RMB 400 million, with over 500 products.

Fishing vessel inspection involves conducting legal inspection of fishing vessel performance according to the Regulation on Fishing Vessel Legal Inspection of the People’s Republic of China.

2.1.3  Major laws, regulations and rules of fisheries management

By the end of the twentieth century, China had several hundred relevant national or regional laws and regulations, including major fisheries laws, regulations, rules and relative laws, regulations and rules.

The major fisheries laws, regulations and rules include:

The relevant laws, regulations and rules include:

2.1.4  Fishery development general goals

As an important industry in the national economy, fishery contributes in large measure to economic development. The fishery development general goals are:

• adhere to the guiding principles of “Give Priority to Aquaculture and Develop Capture Fishery and Processing Simultaneously,” and “Take Measures and Lay Emphasis in Light of Local Conditions”;
  
  
• further improve fishery industry structure;
  
  
• speed up the development of aquaculture;
  
  
• devote major efforts to spreading healthy cultivation methods, with emphasis on developing efficient ecological aquaculture;
  
  
• in suitable places, energetically develop technology and capital to concentrate on raceway fish farming;
  
  
• develop leisure fisheries;
  
  
• by 2005, aquaculture output should reach 67% of total fishery catch;
  
  
• strictly control offshore fishing effort, avoiding negative increase in marine capture catch;
  
  
• develop an aquatic processing industry, and enhance aquatic processing and comprehensive utilization levels;
  
  
• by 2005, processed aquatic production should account for 40% of total fishery catch;
  
  
• enhance the construction of fishery infrastructure and establish of service systems, and improve the aquatic product quality and safety inspection system;
  
  
• by 2005, use of high quality seed in aquaculture should reach 70%;
  
  
• ensure that major aquaculture diseases receive effective prevention and treatment;  and
  
  
• strengthen the fisheries legal system for construction, and establish and improve new fisheries management regulations.

It is the objective for next 5 to 10 years that China’s fisheries will reach a new level, that will encompass healthy capture fishery, advanced aquaculture, newly developed leisure fishery and a sound fishery ecological environment.

2.1.5  Future major fishery development and the means to those ends

• Further increase efforts to protect fishery resources and the environment, closely combining reasonable utilization of fishery resources while protecting renewable resources, the environment and biodiversity;
  
  
• continue emphasis in the fishery industrial system on keeping aquaculture in first place, further extending the healthy aquaculture model, making reasonable programmes and plans for aquaculture zones, improving industrial structure, and developing the culture of special aquatic animals;
  
  
• strengthen fishery international communication and cooperation; increase the ability to participate in international market competition and international affairs; deal properly with bilateral fisheries relations; contest and safeguard national fisheries rights and interests; maintain cooperation with international or regional fisheries organizations; take joint measures to conserve and reasonably utilize fishery resources;
  
  
• investigate carefully fishery infrastructure and the basic situation, including a general survey on marine fishing vessels, fishing port facilities, aquatic seedling farms, and fishing gear and fishing methods, to obtain a true overview of the current situation;
  
  
• promote the establishment of fisheries information systems at market system level;
  
  
• continually enhance safety education, intensify safe operation sense, and strictly enforce relevant laws and regulations;
  
  
• further enhance the construction of fishery infrastructure and support systems; and
  
  
• conscientiously enhance fishery basic theory and develop strategic research.

2.2  Major management systems for fisheries and aquaculture

According to national conditions of China, the fishery industry can be divided into the capture industry, aquaculture industry and aquatic products processing industry.

2.2.1  Capture industry

More than 3 000 species of marine organism are found along the coast, of which 150 have economic value and about 100 species are targeted commercially (hairtail, chub mackerel, Pacific herring, Spanish mackerel, Chinese herring, sea eel, large yellow croaker, small yellow croaker, porgy, silvery pomfret, mullet, flukes, flounder, cuttlefish, squid, octopus, abalone, Chinese shrimp, northern maoxia shrimp, rough shrimp, swimming crab, mud crab, sea cucumber, jellyfish, etc.).

The capture industry includes marine capture (offshore; deep-sea) and freshwater capture (inland waters), using various gear and fishing methods, such as trawl, purse seine, gill and driftnet, set-net; longline, with light induced and sonic induced capture.

2.2.1.1  Marine capture

Marine fishery is one of the important components of Chinese fishery. There are about 470 700 vessels engaged in marine fishing operation, over 90% of which belong to collective or private enterprises. The most common fishing gear used is the trawl net. In terms of catch, trawlers account for 47.1% of total catch, set-nets for 17.5%, gill and driftnets represent 13.7%, purse seines take 4.3%, hook-and-line accounts for 3.2%, and other fishing gear take 14.2%. The pelagic species account for about 40% of the marine capture catch, while the bottom species account for about 60%.

In view of the condition of marine fishery resources, with declining catch and high fishing effort, China conducted a strategic adjustment of the marine capture structure. Measures taken are:

2.2.1.2.  Inland capture

China has about 17.6 million ha of inland water area. There are 18 rivers with a length exceeding 1000 km, such as the Yangtze River, Yellow River, Heilongjiang River, Talimu River and Pearl River. Lakes with area exceeds 100 000 ha include Qinghai Lake, Poyang Lake, Dongting Lake, Taihu Lake and Hulun Lake. In addition, there are 80 000 reservoirs with total area of about 2 million ha..

Natural capture has always been the major part of traditional inland fisheries but resources sharply declined due to excessive effort, compounded by dam building, unwise conversion to farming land, and water pollution from industrial, agricultural and human waste. After the 1980s, the inland capture industry started to recover and increase, thanks to:

More than 700 species of freshwater fish and 60 species of marine freshwater migrating fish are found in inland waters. Major economic species are silver carp, bighead carp, grass carp, black carp, common carp, crucian carp, Chinese breams, catfish, snakehead, mud carp, eel, pond smelt, salmon, trout, mullet, bass, Japanese lamprey, Chinese mitten-handed crab, soft-shell turtle, etc.

2.2.2  Aquaculture

The general development objectives are:

The methods taken to obtain these objectives include:

• to readjust the species structure, developing the culture of species with high value;
  
  
• through reforming the ponds and improving aquaculture technology, to reform cultivation practices, further increase unit output from aquaculture, and manage to reform 50% of ponds into stable, high output, intensive culture ponds;
  
  
• to promote proper scale management, and establish standardized and serialized seedling breeding systems, increasing the good quality seedling cover rate;
  
  
• gradually to establish comprehensive prevention and treatment systems, including fishery environment inspect forecasts, disease research inspection, fish drug production management, fish feed quality inspection, seedling quarantine, etc.;
  
  
• to establish feed production systems and quality inspection systems, improving feed quality and the utilization rate;
  
  
• to extend paddy-cum-fish culture and other kinds of fishery with agriculture, applying husbandry combining ecological agricultural models;
  
  
• to speed the processing of permits for aquaculture; and
  
  
• combine production experience with vocational skill training for aquatic animal seedling breeding staff, aquatic animal disease prevention and treatment staff, and aquatic animal inspection and quarantine staff.

China has following types of aquaculture:

• in different water zones and water bodies, namely marine culture (shallow sea culture, mud flats culture and estuarine culture), freshwater aquaculture (pond culture, lake culture, reservoir culture, river culture and paddy field culture) and brackish-water aquaculture;
  
  
• different culture styles, namely cage culture, pen culture (enclosures), estuary culture, slight flow water culture, raceway fish farming, intensive farming, comprehensive farming, float raft culture, hanging culture, etc.;
  
  
• different cultivation technologies, including monoculture, polyculture and rotation culture; and
  
  
• different species groups, including fish culture, shrimp culture, shellfish culture, crab culture, soft-shell turtle culture and algae culture.

Marine culture Since marine culture output exceeded 1 million tonnes in 1987, China has been the biggest marine culture nation in the world, and production continues to develop. As culture areas have expanded, attention has also been paid to increasing unit output.  The marine culture species exceed 40, including Chinese shrimp, mussel, scallop, abalone, red porgy, black porgy, tilapia, grouper and blue crab.

Shrimp culture  With the rapid development of the Chinese shrimp and scallop culture industry, production exceeded 200 000 t in 1992, but production fell sharply to less than 100 000 t in 1993 because of large-scale outbreaks of shrimp disease. The government strengthened research on aquaculture disease prevention and treatment, taking a series of measures to contain the disease outbreaks and prevent spread, enhancing cultural technology standards and scientific feed formulas, and strictly controlling water quality. After several years of low production, shrimp output has returned to its historical best level.

Shellfish culture  In recent years, shellfish culture exploited and introduced many good quality species, such as Australia Pacific oyster, Japanese oyster, bay scallop, Farrer’ scallop, ezo scallop, abalone, razor clam, blood clam and hard clam. Bay scallop soon developed into an important industry following its introduction into China. Like shrimp culture, scallop culture also experienced a stage of fast development, and suffered great loss caused by disease outbreak because of large-scale culture.

Marine fish culture  Since the 1980s, marine fish culture has gradually developed, with culture of some good quality species with high economic value developing rapidly, such as mullet, red porgy, black porgy, tilapia, sole, sea bass and grouper.

2.3  Stock enhancement

Along with developing marine culture, China also emphasizes the sustainable healthy development of offshore fisheries, enhancing the conservation and reasonable utilization of offshore fisheries resources. From 1986, stock enhancement and resource release have continued in coastal areas, including for prawn, mussel, scallop, abalone, sea cucumber, clam and mullet.  The major species is prawn, and the results have been obvious. From the mid-1980s, dozens of artificial reefs sites have been set up in eight coastal provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, together with the launch of several ten of thousands of artificial reefs, with a total volume of 200 000 m³. Controls exist to adjust the culture scale and species in overexploited water bodies.

Freshwater aquaculture  Inland aquaculture has made a great contribution to fishery development in China, with extension from traditional freshwater aquaculture in ponds to open water, such as lakes, reservoirs and rivers, and cage culture has also raised the aquaculture technology level. The aquaculture area has enlarged from former Pearl River delta and middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River to Northern China, Northeastern China and Southwestern China.

China’s policies for development of inland aquaculture include:

Since Chinese fishery industry has been set the development strategy of putting aquaculture in first place, and essential strategic shift has occurred in freshwater culture, including adjusting the industry structure, shifting from emphasis on scale of production to a quality profit style, developing high quality and efficient aquaculture. The successful operations are comprehensive culture, intensive culture and special aquatic animals culture. More than 30 high quality species have been cultured or introduced into aquaculture. Besides traditionally cultivated species, like silver carp, bighead carp, grass carp, black carp, common carp, crucian carp, Chinese breams, dace and salmon, dozens of species have been cultivated on a large scale, such as tilapia, catfish. rainbow trout, eel, America channel catfish, snakehead, Collssoma brachypomus, perch, finless eel, Japanese Prussian carp, German mirror carp, Indian carp, labeo, peled, silver salmon, Amur sturgeon, Russian sturgeon, sterlet, star sturgeon, freshwater crab, shrimp, Oriental river prawn, giant Malaysian prawn, white shrimp, sand shrimp, spiny lobster, river crab, soft-shelled turtle, turtles and frog. Some artificially selected or cultivated new varieties, such as Jianli carp, Yingli carp, Pengzeli carp, Gaohan carp and triploid sterile carp, have had an obvious effect on production.

Pond culture  The main species cultured in ponds are fishes, and pond culture remains the main part of freshwater aquaculture. The pond culture area (2.14 million ha in 1999) accounted for 42% of the total inland culture area, while the pond culture output (10.196 million tonnes in 1999) accounted for 72% of the total inland culture output, and the economic profit is very good. The most successful pond culture enterprises are comprehensive culture, high output intensive culture, and special aquatic animals culture. The objectives are to continually develop and improve the aquaculture model, renew the species structure, make pond culture sustainable, with stable increases and vigorous vitality, extending from simple fish culture to cultivate reptiles, crustaceans and amphibians.

Lake culture  At present, the lakes are mainly used for:

Reservoir culture  Reservoir culture is an important method of deriving multiple use from water in the reservoir. The utilization of reservoir resources would reflect lake culture technology.

Paddy-cum-fish culture  Fish culture and freshwater crab culture in paddy fields is another example of comprehensive utilization of Chinese farming land resources, successfully planting and culturing a combination. With the policy support of government and availability technical extension services, paddy-cum-fish culture has become an indispensable sector of the aquaculture industry.

2.4  Aquatic processing

The objective for the processing sector is to guide by market forces, gradually adjusting the industrial structure of aquatic processing, developing aquatic simple and further processing, with comprehensive utilization, and develop new products. Endeavour to improve aquatic product quality, increase product value added, and further increase the economic profit for workers and enterprises. This will require strengthening of a sense of aquatic product quality and edible safety quality. On the basis of improved quality of aquatic products, there will be the possibility of exploiting international markets.

Measures need to achieve the objectives include:

• to enhance quality control, and establish and improve the product quality monitoring system for aquatic processing enterprises. Enhance quality management in the fields of aquaculture water environment, product marketing and every working procedure of a processing enterprise, so as to enhance the whole procedure for quality management. This will require that all the aquatic processing enterprises adopt scientific management standards and methods, including HACCP;
  
  
• to strengthen new product quality control and inspection, and establish and aquatic product quality certification centre; and
  
  
• to establish aquatic product quality criteria.

2.5  Marketing and trade in aquatic products

The goal is to speed the construction of an aquatic product market system, improve the pattern, facilities and services of aquatic product markets, establish and improve market regulation and the information network, standardize trade activities, raise aquatic product marketing efficiency, and to effectively develop the domestic market and international market simultaneously.

Measures to achieve this goal will include:

Chinese exports of aquatic products are mostly marine products, the major species including eel (frozen, living and roasted), Chinese shrimp, frozen fish fillet, living fish, cephalopod (squid, cuttlefish, octopus) and balloonfish. In recent years, the volume and value of seafood exports have been increasing, and the portion of processing and high-grade processing products have also increased.

The major seafood products imported into China are fishmeal, pollock, middle and high-grade salmon and trout, crab and lobster.

Chinese aquatic products have been exported to 77 countries and regions in the world, while China imports aquatic product from 69 countries and regions.

3.  FISHERY INVESTMENTS

The fisheries authority of China had US$ 24.2 million of central financial budgetary funds in 1999, including US$ 14.7 million of non-business basic foundation funds (used for technological education, purchasing fisheries management and enforcement facilities, fishing port construction, the construction of a disease prevention and treatment centre and fishery environment inspection station); US$ 5.5 million of special funds (used for aquatic seedlings, disease prevention and treatment); and US$ 4 million of special funds (used for marine and inland fisheries management, maintaining fisheries navigation marks, fishery environment protection and protection of wild aquatic animals).