{"id":40076996,"date":"2018-01-31T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-30T18:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/china-dialogue-ocean-staging.darkbluehq.com\/uncategorized\/2629-xiangshan-fishing-industry\/"},"modified":"2022-03-14T20:19:27","modified_gmt":"2022-03-14T14:49:27","slug":"2629-xiangshan-fishing-industry","status":"publish","type":"photo_story","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/uncategorized\/2629-xiangshan-fishing-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Xiangshan\u2019s struggling fishing industry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last year, Xiangshan county’s fishermen spent four and a half months stuck in port, a month longer than usual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Xiangshan, a crab claw-shaped peninsula south of Ningbo<\/a>, a thriving city in the southeastern province of Zhejiang, has been a well-known fishing region since the 13th century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision to extend the closed season from May to mid-September, instead of June, was taken by the Ministry of Agriculture to give greater protection to fish stocks in the East China Sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fishing season is just beginning in Xiangshan\u2019s historic fishing grounds when I visit. Boats are docked in tight rows in Shipu harbour, colourful flags flapping from their masts. Nearby, the huge fish market is piled high with crates of fresh catch. Porters are bustling about, ceaselessly hauling boxes onto weighing machines and loading trucks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The crew get ready and check the nets.<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The captains represent their crews in a prayer to Mazu, goddess of the sea, for a good catch.<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Performance at fishing season celebration.<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Retired captain Shen Xianggen remembers how depleted the fish stocks were before the closed season was instituted in 1995. He recalls a trip with his son, who was 19 at the time, which netted only thumb-length eels and tiny butterfish, the size of a coin. \u201cThere were no fish in the East China Sea, so we had to head to the South China Sea,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Industrial fisheries <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When the elder Shen started fishing in the 1960s, nets strained under tonnes of fish. But economic reforms in the 1980s changed everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previously, the village commune had owned the fishing fleet, so it wasn\u2019t possible to possess your own boat. The commune planned when and how to fish, and assigned workers like Shen to a fishing crew. He recalls working on a small fleet of wooden vessels that was utterly different from the industrial scale vessels of today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Shen Haibing and his father, Shen Qinggen, stand on deck on their boat.<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

People started to invest in private fishing vessels from the early 1980s, and the seas soon got busier. \u201cAfter reform and opening up I wasn\u2019t sure what to do, but I was best at fishing. So a dozen or so of us got together, got a boat, and just kept fishing,\u201d says Shen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The harbour soon needed expanding, and then several times again. Most locals were rice farmers before the 80s, growing crops on the harbour-side hills. As the industry grew, fields became streets, and workers from inland China that had never even seen the sea flooded in, forming the bulk of the workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dozens of fishing boats tied up in Xiangshan\u2019s Shipu Harbour, waiting for the fishing season to start.<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Shrinking catches<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 1960, there were only 1,500 fishing boats for the county coastline, landing less than 20,000 tonnes of fish a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following unsustainable growth in the 80s, a closed season was introduced in 1995, resulting in a peak in vessels in 1998 at 5,000. By this point the annual catch was more than 400,000 tonnes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fishermen all along the China coast were complaining of shrinking catches by then, not just on the East China Sea. \u201cYou didn\u2019t see yellow croaker so much after the 1990s and eels were much rarer after 2000,\u201d Shen remembers. Those species had been the main catch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n