Evolution of marine fisheries management in China from 1949 to 2019: How did China get here and where does China go next?

China is the world’s biggest fishing nation and a major player in the global seafood trade. Its fisheries development can decisively influence the global seafood trade, food security and marine conservation. In recent years, significant changes have taken place in China’s fisheries management priorities, policies and regulations. In this paper, we review the evolving fisheries management practices in China to delineate changes in the management policies, methods and their performances from 1949 to 2019. We determined that the following issues impede the development, implementation and enforcement of fisheries policies and regulations, namely the large size of the fishing fleet, large and poorly organized fisheries population, the “hidden” fishing capacity, uniform management approaches that sometimes fail to account for local conditions, lack of clearly defined and allocated fishing rights, limited data quality and availability, insufficient fisheries monitoring programmes, absence of a robust scientific input framework and insufficient stakeholder involvement. Combining those problems with China’s current management initiatives, we propose recommendations for China’s future fisheries reforms. We hope this paper can inform China’s marine fisheries policies and provide valuable references for further researches related to China’s sustainable fisheries management.     

荣成市海洋渔业生态系统的调查及其保护的研究

通过对荣成市近海渔业资源、河流入海口、海岸湿地的调查,与25年前对比,荣成近海生态系统平衡失调,严重制约了海洋渔业经济的可持续发展,海洋生态系统亟需加强保护、治理和修复。     

The contribution of cephalopods to global marine fisheries: can we have our squid and eat them too?

Cephalopods are a key component of marine food webs, providing sustenance for myriad marine species. Cephalopods are also of increasing economic importance as evidenced by the rapid rise in their global landings over recent decades. If fisheries continue on this trajectory, conflicts may transpire among cephalopod and finfish fisheries, particularly in ecosystems where cephalopods are highly valuable both directly as a landed commodity and indirectly as prey for other harvested species. We provide the first measure of the ecosystem services that cephalopods contribute to fisheries in 28 marine ecosystems, both as a commodity and an ecological support service. We also evaluate how current demands on cephalopods compare to mid‐20th century conditions. We find that cephalopod contributions to fisheries vary widely, but are substantial in many ecosystems. Commodity and supportive services provided by cephalopods contributed as much as 55% of fishery landings (tonnes) and 70% of landed values ($USD). The contribution of cephalopods as a commodity was generally greatest in the coastal ecosystems, whereas their contribution as a supportive service was highest in open ocean systems. Further, the commodity and supportive services provided by cephalopods to fisheries landings increased in most of the coastal ecosystems between the mid‐20th century (years 1960–70) and contemporary periods (years 1990–2004), indicating the rising demand for cephalopods. Current demands have no historical precedent and ecosystems in which cephalopods are highly exploited as a targeted resource and as an ecological support service should be further evaluated to prevent the unsustainable development of marine fisheries within them.     

论地方渔民协会在我国海洋渔业可持续发展中的作用——来自海安老坝港镇捕捞协会的启示

近年来海洋渔业面临资源衰退、渔场减少、因渔民众多而监管成本高等问题，严重阻碍了我国海洋渔业经济的可持续发展。文章首先从交易成本的视觉对渔民协会在实现海洋渔业经济可持续发展中的作用进行了理论分析，然后以江苏海安县老坝港镇捕捞协会为对象，对理论推演的结论进行了实证检验。研究表明，老坝港捕捞渔民协会的成立，一方面能够在保证转业者福利不低于捕捞业的情况下，协助转业者寻找替代性就业机会，从而有利于降低捕捞业的劳动力人数，减轻对渔业资源的压力；另一方面能使政府在市场经济条件下提高管理效率、降低政府和渔民的交易成本，有利于促进海洋捕捞渔业的可持续发展。     

‘Whales eat fish’? Demystifying the myth in the Caribbean marine ecosystem

There has been much recent discussion about the idea that large whales are potential competitors with fisheries for available marine resources. Based on this idea, often referred to as the ‘whales eat fish’ conflict, culling whales has been proposed as a way to increase resources available for human consumption and thereby ensuring global food security. However, the scientific basis for such arguments remains unclear, especially in the Caribbean waters where baleen whales generally do not feed. In this article, we (i) develop an ecosystem model describing the trophic interactions between whales, fish and fisheries in the Caribbean waters, (ii) calculate the level of overlap between cetaceans and fisheries for food resources, and (iii) simulate the removal of cetaceans from the Caribbean waters in order to quantify the potential increase in available biomass of commercially important fish. Ten groups of cetaceans are considered in the model, including baleen whales, toothed whales and small cetaceans. Our results suggest that baleen whales are not a threat to fisheries in Caribbean waters, while toothed cetaceans seem to be more impacted by fisheries than they actually impacting them. Whales target different types of food resources and consume significantly less than what is taken by fisheries. Moreover, simulated reductions in large whale abundance do not produce any appreciable increase in biomass of the commercially important fish species. In some cases, the presence of some whales actually improves fishery yield as a result of indirect predation effects.     

我国海洋生态环境保护与渔业可持续发展问题初探

近年来我国沿海地区对渔业资源的过度开发导致渔业生态水域污染日益严重,渔业资源持续衰退,海洋生态环境问题日渐突出。要科学合理开发海洋,就必须合理配置渔业资源,积极引导传统海洋渔业向现代海洋渔业转变。必须寻求海洋渔业环境与经济发展之间的平衡关系。要将渔业地区的生态、环境、资源、经济和社会视为一个相互关联的大系统。同时,要树立海洋生态环境保护意识,加强渔业立法,促进海洋渔业可持续发展。     

当代海洋捕捞的发展现状和展望

海洋捕捞事关国际粮食安全和海洋生态系统健康。得益于科学技术的进步, 当代海洋捕捞发展迅速, 但依然面临着渔业资源衰退、海洋底栖环境破坏、兼捕与抛弃、废弃渔具引起的幽灵捕捞和塑料污染、气候变化、区域发展不平横等系列问题。本文综述了国内外为缓解上述问题在海洋捕捞管理、技术创新、最佳实践探索等方面的工作进展, 并提出了如下发展建议: (1) 应进一步加强生态友好型渔具渔法、高效节能技术、废弃渔具回收利用技术、生物可降解材料等方面的基础和应用研究; (2) 开展减少兼捕、降低底拖网对底栖环境的影响、海洋捕捞高效节能、减少废弃渔具流向海洋等方面最佳实践的探索; (3) 加强激励机制的研究和应用, 加强对废弃渔具回收产业的政策扶持, 完善海洋捕捞管理体系和废弃渔具管理体系建设, 增强治理能力; (4) 加强国家或地区间渔业合作, 分享管理知识, 促进区域间平衡发展。(5) 加强气候变化应对策略的探索研究。立足长远、多措并举, 促进海洋捕捞可持续发展。