China, the world's largest harvester of aquatic products, is slated to cut its fishing work-force and vessels by around 10 percent in the coming five years to preserve fishery resources and address problems brought about by the implementation of international fishing pacts, a senior fisheries official said last Saturday in Beijing.

Yang Jian, director of China's Fisheries Bureau, said 30,000 fishing boats, out of the country's total of 244,336, will have to withdraw from offshore waters by the year 2006, because of dwindling offshore fish stocks and shrinking fishing areas, the result of agreements signed with neighboring countries.

Over-fishing and pollution in recent years have caused the deterioration of the offshore environment and depletion of fishery resources, Yang said in an interview.

The official said China has achieved its goal of maintaining "zero growth" in marine fisheries output for three years in a row, beginning with 1999.

The country's marine fisheries output totaled 12.96 million tons between January and November last year, a drop of 2.67 percent from the harvest for the same period in 2000, according to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture.

Efforts to strictly control the extent of fishing by reducing the number of fishing vessels and expanding aquaculture operations are helping in this process, he said.

"This year, we plan to take 6,000 fishing boats out of operation through the implementation of a scrapping system and the transfer of fishermen to other jobs," he said.

The official said he estimates that 200,000 fishermen will have to find work in other sectors in the coming five years, partly because of the fishing agreements China has signed with South Korea, Japan and Viet Nam.

Under rules enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which China became a signatory to in 1996, all coastal nations are allowed jurisdiction over resources up to 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from their shores, according to Zhang Hecheng, vice-director of the bureau.

China has signed fishing agreements with its neighbors South Korea, Japan and Viet Nam, with which it shares seas, but where there is less than 400 nautical miles between them, according to Zhang.

Implementation of the agreements with the three countries will see more than 30,000 Chinese fishing vessels retreat from their traditional fishing grounds, and will affect the lives of 300,000 offshore fishermen, said Cui Lifeng, a division director of the bureau.

Yang Jian said preferential treatment will be given to offshore fishermen who turn to aquaculture, and they will also be encouraged to set up processing plants or get involved in ocean fishing.

The government will compensate fishermen withdrawn from offshore fishing, he said, without specifying any figures.

(China Daily January 19, 2002)