China’s minister of agriculture, who also oversees fisheries, has made expanding off-shore deep-water cage aquaculture a priority for the next year.
Han Changfu said “ocean fish pastures” – a popular phrase used in the industry in China – will be ramped up at the same time as the local fleet will be further trimmed in an effort to conserve stocks in national waters. Speaking at the recently concluded annual National People’s Congress in Beijing, Han said his department wanted to “better regulate” the fleet while also retraining more fishermen for jobs in other industries.
Han’s pledges came just days after the key fisheries hub of Dalian announced it is investing an additional CNY 10 million (USD 1.5 million, EUR 1.4 million) in expanding the deep-sea aquaculture trials off the coast of Dalian. Dalian is paying CNY 8,000 (USD 1,161, EUR 1,079) per 1,000 kilowatts to fishermen to scrap in-shore vessels, a program which aims to take 2,266 vessels and 94,722 kilowatts out of circulation. The scheme is designed to move China towards “sustainable fisheries” and targets “old, outmoded” and wooden boats as well as small-sized vessels. The program makes no mention of long-distance vessels.
