Recovery from tragedies: Sustaining China’s marine fisheries resources

Abstract

China used to be relatively rich in marine fisheries resources but overfishing during the last three and a half decades has depleted China’s coastal fish stocks. Fish farming has become an option to satisfy the ever-growing demand by Chinese consumers. This paper develops an exploratory model to understand the reasons causing fish stock depletion, including natural and human-made factors. It analyses China’s marine fisheries resource management regimes and explores the trends in seafood demand and supply. The findings suggest that domestic marine fish farming, rather than import from overseas, will continue to be the major source of China’s seafood supply. However, the safety of seafood from coastal fish farms associated with high levels of pollution remains a serious public concern and constrains this industry’s development. In order to sustain and allow China’s depleted marine resources to recover, better management methods, including traditional marine fisheries approaches, need to be introduced into the industry. The paper also develops a national sustainability strategy model for the restoration of the fisheries industry in China.