Exploring the management policy of distant water fisheries in China: Evolution, challenges and prospects
Introduction
China has been the world's largest fishing country since 1990, which is mainly due to overexploitation of offshore fishery resources (Xue, 2006; Yang et al., 2016). In recent years, the depletion of offshore fishery resources and the deterioration of the marine environment caused by overfishing have severely restricted the development of China's fisheries (Zhao and Shen, 2016; Ding et al., 2020; Kang et al., 2018). Therefore, the development of distant water fisheries and aquaculture has become an important way to reduce the pressure of overfishing in China (Liu et al., 2014). In addition, as a strategic industry, distant water fisheries are of great significance for meeting the domestic demand for high-quality aquatic products, ensuring food security, increasing fishermen's income, and promoting the development of the fishery economy (Mallory, 2013; Zhang et al., 2019; Yue et al., 2016).
About 90 % of the world's fish stocks have been over exploited or are fully developed, but there is still potentials for distant water fisheries resources, especially small pelagic fish, cephalopods and Antarctic krill (FAO, 2016; Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, 2012). Although the industrial fishing of Antarctic krill is controversial, the Chinese government regards the harvesting of Antarctic krill as one of its important strategies for distant water fisheries (Schiermeier, 2010; Tang and Shi, 2010; Nicol and Foster, 2016). Accurate resource assessment, effective catch control and sound fishery management are essential for sustainable fisheries (Nicol et al., 2012). In 2019, China had 170 distant water fisheries enterprises, operating 2654 distant water fishing vessels, and the output of distant water fisheries was 2.257 million tons. The scale and total output of the fishing fleet were among the highest in the world. China has become an important distant water fishing nation (DWFN) (Chesnokova and McWhinnie, 2019). In 2017, among the seven principal tuna species1 in the world, the fraction of the stocks at biologically sustainable levels was 66.6 percent, which has increased by ten percent compared with 2015. It proves that fisheries management is effective (FAO, 2020). If China's distant water fisheries can achieve reasonable management, it will make a significant contribution to the world's marine fisheries.
The protection of the marine ecological environment, the sustainable use of marine fishery resources, and the establishment of a fishery management system have become international consensus (Tickler et al., 2018; Danielsen and Agnarsson, 2018; Zou and Huntington, 2018). China's distant water fisheries management involves the development, production, processing, sales, and trade of fishery resources, and needs to consider both domestic and international fields (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, 2017). Since 1985, China has continuously improved its management policies for distant water fisheries, which has promoted the rapid development of them (Huang and He, 2019). However, under the background of increasingly strict management measures of regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) and occurrence of IUU activities, the shortcomings of China's ocean-going fishery management policies are being gradually exposed (Okafor-Yarwood and Belhabib, 2020; Miller and Sumaila, 2014; Ma et al., 2018). In the future, China's ocean-going fisheries management will still face huge challenges.
This paper reviews the development of China's distant water fisheries and explains the evolution of ocean-going fishery management policies. In addition, it discusses the challenges faced by China's distant water fisheries management policies in terms of technology, marine rights, management systems, industrial structure, and employee capabilities. Finally, this paper determines the prospects of China's distant water fisheries management policy in terms of attaching importance to science and technology, optimizing subsidies, stakeholder participation in decision-making, improving the supervision system, and strengthening international cooperation.
Section snippets
Start-up period (1985–1990)
On March 10, 1985, China's first distant water fleet consisting of 12 production fishing vessels and a refrigerated transport vessel sailed to West Africa, which marked the official start of China distant water fisheries. Subsequently, China launched fisheries cooperation with Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, Sierra Leone and other countries. On July 23, 1985, China and the United States signed the "Sino-US Fishery Agreement" in Washington. According to the agreement, Chinese fishing vessels could fish
Restriction of equipment and technology
In general, the distant water fleet is composed of large-scale processing mother ships, fishing sub-ships, bunkering ships, and transport ships with high automation and strong endurance (Liu et al., 2020). This kind of fleet with refrigeration, processing, supply and other functions poses extremely high requirements on the equipment and technology. Moreover, the competitive fishing and fishing-aid equipment can improve production efficiency effectively and reduce production safety risks. As of
Attaching importance to science and technology
After more than 30 years of development, China's distant water fisheries has initially formed a scientific and technological support system in the fields of fishing technology, fishery exploration, fishery equipment, and fishery forecasting (Chen et al., 2019). The government actively promotes the innovation of distant water fisheries science and technology as an important part of distant water fisheries management, which has effectively promoted the rapid development of distant water
Conclusion
After more than 30 years of development, China's distant water fisheries has begun to scale up and the management level of distant water fisheries has been improved significantly. Meanwhile, China’s rapid development of distant water fisheries and IUU activities have exerted a certain influence on the sustainable development of global fisheries. As an important means for the government and fisheries organizations to guide and regulate the development of distant water fisheries, fishery
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Jinkai Yu: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Project administration, Supervision. Qingchao Han: Data curation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Methodology.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Acknowledgements
This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71673259), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (201862004).
References (52)
- et al.
Not all who wander are lost: improving spatial protection for large pelagic fishes
Mar. Policy
(2019) - et al.
A review of the development of Chinese distant-water squid jigging fisheries
Fish. Res.
(2008) - et al.
Fisheries policy in the Faroe Islands: managing for failure?
Mar. Policy
(2018) Chinese fisheries enforcement: environmental and strategic implications
Mar. Policy
(2013)Chinese public policy on fisheries subsidies: reconciling trade, environmental and food security stakes
Mar. Policy
(2015)- et al.
Management of China’s capture fisheries: review and prospect
Aquac. Fish.
(2019) - et al.
Aquatic products processing industry in China: challenges and outlook
Trends Food Sci. Tech.
(2009) - et al.
The cooperation strategies of fisheries between Taiwanese purse seiners and Pacific Island Countries
Mar. Policy
(2016) - et al.
Using indicators to evaluate the Taiwanese distant-water fishery-policy performance
Ocean Coast. Manage.
(2014) Regional fisheries management organization with an endogenous minimum participation level for cooperation in straddling stock fisheries
Fish. Res.
(2009)
Concerns about the future of Chinese fisheries based on illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing on the Hanjiang river
Fish. Res.
China’s distant water fishing industry: evolving policies and implications
Mar. Policy
Fisheries subsidies in China: quantitative and qualitative assessment of policy coherence and effectiveness
Mar. Policy
Flag use behavior and IUU activity within the international fishing fleet: refining definitions and identifying areas of concern
Mar. Policy
The duplicity of the european union common fisheries policy in third countries: evidence from the Gulf of Guinea
Ocean Coast. Manage.
An overview of marine fisheries management in China
Mar. Policy
China’s aquatic product processing industry: policy evolution and economic performance
Trends Food Sci. Tech.
Exploring stakeholder engagement in mariculture development: Challenges and prospects for China
Mar. Policy
A statistical analysis of China’s fisheries in the 12th five-year period
Aquac. Fish.
Implications of the convention on the conservation and management of pollock resources in the Central Bering Sea for the management of fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean
Mar. Policy
Euros vs. yuan: comparing european and chinese fishing access in West Africa
PLoS One
Necessarily of training and education of the staffs who engage in international management for deep sea fishery
Chin. Fish. Econ.
The management of high seas fisheries
Ann. Oper. Res.
Opportunity for marine fisheries reform in China
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.
The dragon as a fisherman china’s distant water fishing fleet and the export of environmental insecurity
SAIS Rev.
The history and characteristics of deep sea fishery development in China
Ocean Dev. Manage.
Cited by (18)
International advocacy and China's distant water fisheries policies
2023, Marine PolicyProvincial variations and entrepreneurialism in the development of China's Distant Water Fisheries (2011–2020)
2023, Marine PolicyCitation Excerpt :The recentness of these initiatives makes it difficult to assess their effectiveness in reining in the expansion of China’s DWF fleet, regulating its overseas fishing activities, and reducing their harmful environmental effects. A note of caution against overly optimistic predictions about their effectiveness is warranted because China’s marine fisheries—and, more broadly, ocean—management has long been known for being marred by problems of insufficient capacity, overlapping authorities, and implementation gaps, among others [57,58,61]. However, the political-administrative recentralization during the Xi Jinping era appears to raise hope that more effectual policy management from Beijing will ensure local compliance, especially in response to environmental challenges.
PLTS/DEMATEL-based key policy factor identification for marine fisheries management in China
2022, Regional Studies in Marine ScienceCitation Excerpt :For the sustainable development of pelagic fisheries, China has promulgated a series of policies for the supervision and management of pelagic fisheries, and the legal and institutional system has been constantly improved (Yu and Wang, 2021). Meanwhile, in order to cope with the conflicts of international fisheries agreements, China also published a series of documents and normative measures to strengthen the production safety of pelagic fisheries (Yu and Han, 2021). Nevertheless, China’s marine fisheries policy and management system, centered on the dual-control system, has failed to meet the needs of rapid development in the new era.