China’s support of its fishing industry has resulted in a massive expansion of Qingdao’s distant-water fleet.
The Chinese port city of Qingdao increased the scale of its distant-water fleet from 10 vessels in 2013 – all operated by one firm, catching 3,000 metric tons – to 169 vessels operated by 31 firms, collectively landing an annual catch of 140,000 metric tons in 2020.
The data comes from a document issued to officials and media as part of a publicity campaign by an organization representing distant-water fishing companies in the city. The document states local fishing companies “want to bring more of the catch back to Qingdao for processing and sale, rather than supplying catches to Western countries who capture most of the value.”
Qingdao Ocean Fisheries Association Secretary-General Yu Xin recently told the official news outlet of the municipal government that Qingdao will “further develop” distant-water fisheries, which he described as a “huge systemic project” requiring the development of large local companies and government-backed training for operatives servicing the sector.
Wang Yanan, deputy director of the Marine Fisheries Division of Qingdao Ocean Development Bureau, a state-funded entity, said local government will continue to assist the city’s distant-water firms to expand operations into all of the world’s major oceans, according to Qingdao News Network, the news site of the city government.
In an extensive report on the city’s distant-water fishing sector, also published by the Qingdao News Network, several fishing-vessel owners and workers point to the abundance of wild fishery stocks in the Pacific and in African waters, as well as Latin America.
The growth in the number of Chinese distant-water fishing vessels – operated by companies that are often government-owned – have been blamed by some environmental groups and coastal states for a global rise in overfishing and illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. Additionally, European and U.S. observers have said China’s fleet has an unfair advantaged due to subsidies provided by the Chinese government.
Photo courtesy of Igor Grochev/Shutterstock
