China's Yellow Sea and East China Sea start fishing again after an interval of three and a half months

12:00 on September 16, after a three-and-a-half-month fishing moratorium, fishing in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea was fully opened. This marks the end of the fishing moratorium in China this year.

This year also marks the 20th anniversary of the implementation of the summer fishing moratorium in China. What is the effect of this system? How to realize the sustainable development of fishery and increase the income of fishermen while protecting the ecological environment? The author interviewed Zhao Xingwu, director of the Fisheries and Fisheries Administration of the Ministry of Agriculture, Cheng Jiahua, a researcher at the East China Sea Fisheries Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Fisheries Sciences, and Chen Yanping, a Houshayang fisherman in Putuo District, Zhoushan City, Zhejiang Province.

The fishing moratorium protects marine biodiversity and promotes fishermen to increase income and reduce expenditure.

China's summer fishing moratorium system is on the basis of the traditional fishing moratorium in fishing production, through local practice and continuous exploration and development, and finally become an important national fishery resources conservation system. Since 1995, the scope of the national summer fishing moratorium has been continuously expanded, from the initial moratorium only in the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea, to now it has covered four sea areas: the Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the South China Sea. Marine fishing alone involves more than 100,000 fishing vessels suspended from fishing in 11 coastal provinces (autonomous regions and cities), including mobile fishing vessels from Hong Kong and Macao, and millions of fishermen.

"after 20 years of development, the current fishing moratorium has been extended to two and a half months to three and a half months a year, and the type of fishing moratorium has been expanded to all types except fishing gear and single-layer Gill nets in some sea areas. The summer fishing moratorium has not only led to the sustainable development of the marine ecological environment, but also promoted the fishery cooperation between China and neighboring countries. Over the past decade, China's marine fishing output has been maintained at about 11 million tons, with nearly 200000 marine fishing vessels and more than 3 million employees. " Zhao Xingwu said.

This judgment was agreed by Chen Yanping, a fisherman in Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province: "the benefits of a summer fishing moratorium on fishermen are obvious." In recent years, I obviously feel that the environment is much better, and there are a lot more crabs and shrimps than before. You can repair the boat during the fishing moratorium and travel when you have time. "

Around the Zhoushan archipelago is a famous fishing ground rich in fishery resources. In Chen Yanping's memory, in the 1970s and 1980s, local fishermen used small wooden boats, but they caught a lot of big fish every time they went out to sea. After entering the 1990s, the ship is getting bigger and bigger, the equipment is more and more advanced, but the catch is far less than before, the common catches such as belt fish, yellow croaker are getting less and less, and the fish is getting smaller and smaller.

Fishing-based fisheries are turning to aquaculture.

"the summer season is the reproduction and growth period of major marine organisms. Fishing moratorium can increase and replenish the number of fish stocks, protect marine biodiversity and initially alleviate the trend of structural deterioration of biological populations." Cheng Jiahua said.

According to reports, under the situation that the pressure of offshore fishing in China greatly exceeds the bearing capacity of resources, the protection effect of the summer fishing moratorium system is mainly reflected in the resource species with a certain population size and relatively fast growth rate. The most typical is the protective effect on juvenile belt fish, small yellow croaker, mackerel, shrimp and crab parents and larvae. The effective protection of these four types of fishery resources has maintained the basis of China's marine fishing production and played a "Poseidon needle" role in ensuring the market supply of marine aquatic products.

At the same time, more and more fishermen shift from fishing-based production mode to aquaculture-based production mode, and the fishery industrial structure of our country has been continuously optimized. It has been revealed that in 2014, the country's total output of aquatic products reached 64.615 million tons, ranking first in the world for 25 consecutive years; the per capita share of aquatic products in the country is 47.24kg, more than twice that of the world; and the per capita net income of fishermen is 14426 yuan. 4534 yuan more than the per capita net income of farmers.

After more than 20 years of development, China has become a big fishery country with the largest number of fishing vessels, the largest number of fishermen and the highest fishery output in the world. But the overall situation is that the quantity is high and the quality is low, the structure of community and population is more and more unreasonable, and the marine ecosystem appears to be more fragile. " Zhao Xingwu said frankly. For example, the proportion of traditional economic fishery resources is declining year by year, and the number of fish such as large yellow croaker, Moray eel and dogfish has declined seriously and cannot be concentrated into flood season. When the age of fish or one-year-old fish become the main use, many species have appeared the phenomenon of early sexual maturity. On the other hand, the catch structure is mainly composed of small miscellaneous fish, miscellaneous shrimp and other low value catch, and the adult proportion of traditional economic fish is further decreasing.

Offshore pollution is still serious, and the protection of fishery resources still needs to be strengthened.

As a matter of fact, the summer fishing moratorium system also faces some difficulties and challenges in the process of implementation. For example, affected by factors such as the decline of fishery resources and the increase in costs, especially during the fishing moratorium, the production efficiency of fishermen has declined; in the summer season, there are many fishing vessels, many fishermen, for a long time, and the task of fishing moratorium management is very arduous. In most localities, there is a shortage of law enforcement funds, law enforcement equipment and law enforcement personnel.

In addition, the pollution of the sea area is still serious, resulting in the decrease of the fecundity of fishery resources and the viability of larvae, the increase of marine coastal engineering projects, and the occupation of a large number of breeding habitats of fishery resources. it has a negative impact on the marine ecological environment and the effect of resource conservation.

How to take into account the sustainable development of fisheries while protecting the ecological environment?

"first of all, it is necessary to improve and improve the relevant laws and regulations on resources and environmental protection. Secondly, it is necessary to strengthen the control of fishing intensity and the management of fishing vessels, promote the standardized management of fishing gear, constantly improve the system of fishing moratorium, carry out research on quota fishing management, and actively promote fishermen engaged in fishing operations to change jobs. Third, we should constantly strengthen the protection of endangered aquatic wild animals and plants and aquatic germplasm resources, build a number of aquatic nature reserves and aquatic germplasm resources reserves, and severely crack down on illegal fishing, marketing and transportation of aquatic wild animals and plants and their products. Develop marine pastures, strengthen the release of artificial reefs, and increase the proliferation and release of fishery resources. We should try our best to achieve the sustainable development of marine fishery resources so that our future generations can have seafood. " Zhao Xingwu said.