{"id":60048046,"date":"2024-08-27T17:44:27","date_gmt":"2024-08-27T16:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/?p=60048046"},"modified":"2025-02-25T08:22:31","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T08:22:31","slug":"how-to-stop-net-dumping-in-chinas-largest-fishing-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/ocean\/how-to-stop-net-dumping-in-chinas-largest-fishing-ground\/","title":{"rendered":"How to stop net dumping in China\u2019s largest fishing ground"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Swimming crabs, also known as portunid crabs, are the star attraction in the waters off Zhoushan, Zhejiang province.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They have long lured droves of fishing vessels to this, China\u2019s largest fishing ground. Fishers commonly use cheap, single-use, plastic gillnets to capture these highly sought-after crabs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is a gillnet?<\/span>
\n

A vertical wall of netting kept upright by floats and weights. The mesh size of gillnets are chosen depending on the target species, though bycatch is a recurrent problem. Gillnets are used all over the world in both small- and large-scale fisheries.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

While waiting to haul in a catch, fishers usually have something else to worry about. If the floats attached to the net are not moving, the net is usually caught on something \u2013 a shipwreck, a rocky reef, an abandoned shipping container, or a heap of discarded fishing gear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fishers have encountered this gear, also known as \u201cghost gear\u201d, and other debris more frequently in the last two decades, as the number of fishing vessels has grown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yu Shanhai first went to sea as crew when he was 16, so his affinity with the Zhoushan fishing ground goes back more than four decades. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of stuff down there now that didn\u2019t used to be there at all,\u201d he told Dialogue Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yu says that while fishers cannot see conditions under the surface, they know from experience to avoid anchoring and lowering their nets in places with a lot of debris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even so, fishing nets frequently snag underwater. The fishers have a saying that \u201cSeven nets out of ten get snagged\u201d. If they are lightly damaged, they can be re-lowered somewhere else, but badly damaged ones are cut loose before they caught a thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"fish<\/div>
A screengrab of a film by Zhoushan GMC shows a fish trapped by an abandoned net in the water of Zhoushan Island (Image: Zhoushan City Green Marine Ecology Promotion Center)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"A<\/div>
Another screengrab shows a trawl net discarded on a reef in Zhoushan fishing ground (Image: Zhoushan City Green Marine Ecology Promotion Center)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

These damages not only cost fishers but also exacerbate the ghost gear problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The durability of plastic nets means they continue doing their job long after being discarded, ensnaring marine animals, which may be injured or killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experts tell Dialogue Earth that China has very few policies to address ghost gear. Legal provisions could help, they suggest, as well as financial incentives for recovering gear and management measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How serious is the ghost gear problem?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf not for this job, I would never have believed how serious the ghost gear problem was,\u201d Wang Yixin told Dialogue Earth. Wang was the co-founder of Zhoushan City Green Marine Ecology Promotion Center (Zhoushan GMC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The organisation he led undertook a survey<\/a> of discarded fishing gear in the Zhoushan fishing ground in 2021. The findings showed that most of the ghost gear in the area was made up of single-use gillnets used for catching crab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"crab<\/div>
Apart from gillnets, crab fishers in Zhoushan also use traps. Another screengrab of the Zhoushan GMC film shows a discarded trap found by researchers during an underwater survey (Image: Zhoushan City Green Marine Ecology Promotion Center)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Wang says that the portunid crab fishing grounds are always packed during the autumn season. At peak times, up to 2,200 vessels operate in the 35,000 sq km zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gillnets used to catch them are made up of individual net panels seamed together, and can be a few nautical miles wide. A single fishing vessel gets through 50,000 to 80,000 net panels per year, with a discard rate of about 4-6% at sea, the others being taken ashore. By a rough estimate, at least 18,600 tonnes of disposable gillnets for crab were added to the fishing ground in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem of ghost gear is not confined to Zhoushan, but from interviews undertaken for this article, Dialogue Earth is not aware of any survey carried out at a national level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Globally, a 2020 report<\/a> by WWF shows that around 500,000 to a million tonnes of fishing gear are abandoned in the global ocean every year, threatening biodiversity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As countries are negotiating<\/a> a UN treaty to end plastics pollution, environmental campaigners  are pushing<\/a> for a provision on ghost gear to be included.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fishers need incentives <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Fishers are both polluter and victim when it comes to ghost gear, but they could also be a solution. Yu Shanhai says they increasingly recognise the seriousness of the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhatever debris we encounter, we would pretty much bring it all back. Otherwise, you run into it again the next time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yu Shanhai, now a captain himself, leads a vessel with more than a dozen crew. He says he has the crew clean up any snagged gear that can be hauled up. It\u2019s later taken ashore for disposal. However, crews are not always cooperative about the additional work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFishers\u2019 work is exhausting,\u201d says Jiang Xian\u2019an, head of integrated management at Zhoushan GMC. They basically work flat out for two months non-stop when they are at sea, he explains. The lowering of nets at 4am is followed by a nap, hauling in the catch, sorting, freezing, and then after a brief rest another round of lowering the nets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Several<\/div>
Fishers on a vessel from Zhoushan separate ghost gear and other rubbish from their catch (Image: Zhoushan City Green Marine Ecology Promotion Center)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Dealing with retrieved ghost gear is a nuisance for crews. Jiang explains that the items hauled aboard tend to be mixed with trash fish and covered in silt and seaweed, which reeks and needs hosing off. Then there is the tricky matter of making space for it in the tight confines of the boat. Storage next to the catch would be unhygienic, and anywhere else intrudes on the limited living space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yu says that for now they rely on regular supply ships to take the waste back to land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat helps with fishers is money,\u201d Jiang says bluntly. \u201cWithout compensation, it\u2019s hard to get them to feel committed.\u201d At present, there are no specific subsidies encouraging fishers to recycle waste fishing gear, the price for which is \u201cvery cheap\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No closed incentive loop as yet<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Wang Yixin says fishers are likely to dump nets overboard because extreme weather makes retrieving them difficult or otherwise they form a safety hazard, cramp the boat, and recycling companies will not pay much for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fully recovering ghost gear involves collection at sea, transport to port, then by vehicle to a recycling site, and detoxification. Fishers\u2019 willingness to take part is key to initiating that process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAwareness alone will not be enough if we are to encourage fishers to bring scrapped gear back with them. They must feel valued. Capitalising on the sorted gear enables fishers to reap the financial benefit through a reward system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wang\u2019s organisation is looking at promoting a market-based recycling model that involves fishing communities. For instance, they are exploring schemes that turn marine plastic waste into high-value stationery and household products for export, which label the origin of their recycled materials. Several other groups in Zhoushan and other coastal areas are promoting similar, public-interest schemes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"two<\/div>
Researchers lay out waste brought back by a vessel that uses traps, after its return from a three-day fishing trip (Image: Zhoushan City Green Marine Ecology Promotion Center)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

An FAO report<\/a> shows that recycling plastic products has its limitations. Mechanical recycling, which involves washing, crushing and processing plastics, is energy intensive and creates air pollution<\/a>. While chemical recycling, to transform waste plastic into usable elements, can cause heavy-metal pollution. Recycling fishing gear is therefore only a temporary, transitional measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Changing fishing methods is the fundamental solution. According to Wang: \u201cLine fishing instead of catching with nets is the most realistic option at present. The number of live fish caught this way is small. But the price is multiple times that of regular fish and profit is decent for the fishers. In this way, the quality improves for consumers while the environmental burden comes down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for crab fisheries, Wang says deploying single-use gillnets is the most economical and efficient method. Regulating the volume of fishing net deployment and limiting the number of fishing licenses in the area can bring the situation under control, he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drawing on folk culture could perhaps help raise awareness, too. Han Han, president of ChinaBlue Sustainability Institute in Hainan, says that recourse to the Chinese sea goddess of Mazu and other customary culture could cultivate fishers\u2019 reverence for the sea, helping curb the practice of dumping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n