Distant-water subsidies recently offered by multiple Chinese coastal cities run counter to efforts by China’s central government to control the country’s sprawling global fleet and limit IUU fishing, according to François Mosnier, the head of the Oceans Program at think tank Planet Tracker.
Earlier this summer, the Zhangzhou fishing port in the southern Chinese province of Fujian announced a CNY 40 million (USD 5.6 million, EUR 4.8 million) subsidy through the municipal government that will be put toward purchasing new Antarctic krill-fishing vessels as part of a support package to help expand the local distant-water fleet.
Aside from the funding available for new krill vessels, Zhangzhou authorities are also paying CNY 3 million (USD 420,000, EUR 360,000) and CNY 900,000 (USD 126,000, EUR 108,000) for new tuna purse seiners and squid jiggers, respectively.
This move coincided with the city of Quanzhou, which is also based in Fujian, announcing new support measures that will provide newly registered distant-water fishing enterprises with up to CNY 5 million (USD 700,000, EUR 600,000) in subsidies per vessel.
Distant-water fishing enterprises in Quanzhou that introduce new vessels through mergers and acquisitions are also entitled to receive up to CNY 4 million (USD 560,000, EUR 480,000) per vessel.
“[This marks the] continuation of a trend where Beijing's efforts to tighten central control out of concern over environmental and social issues are offset by some coastal provinces' interest in expanding their distant-water fishing industry,” Mosnier said. “Subsidies aiming at adding capacity are, by definition, harmful and should not be granted, first and foremost for environmental reasons but also for economic ones,”
Mosnier said he believes that Chinese provincial money would be better spent on improving the sustainability of the sector and, thus, giving local fishing firms an edge, or by encouraging the use of initiatives or hardware designed locally.
“There are providers of monitoring/traceability tech for fishing in Fujian, Zhejiang, Liaoning and Shandong provinces,” he said.
Earlier this year, an article published in Marine Policy titled “Provincial variations and entrepreneurialism in the development of China’s distant-water fisheries” outlined that the Chinese government has sought to rein in a group of provinces that have rapidly expanded their distant-water fleets, such as through issuing “zero-tolerance” policies to IUU fishing and capping the size of fleets, among other actions.
One such province according to the research is Fujian, which has boosted the sector through ambitious subsidy packages and has caused alarm among Beijing officials who worried that, without action, the rapid growth could lead to environmental outcry if allowed to continue unheeded.
