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\u00a9 Huating | Dreamstime.com<\/p><\/div>\n

By Sandra Ortellado, 2018 Science Communication Fellow<\/em><\/p>\n

China is the world\u2019s biggest producer of both wild and farmed fish, yet the massive commercial fishing industry threatens thousands of years of tradition in ocean and freshwater fishing, as well as the livelihoods of coastal fishing communities.<\/p>\n

In the past decade, some coastal ecosystems and environments have been destroyed and polluted in the process of industrialization. Millions of tons of fish are caught in Chinese territorial waters each year, such that overfishing of high value commercial species has led to a drastic decline of some native fisheries resources and species.<\/p>\n

In response, the Chinese government released a five-year plan<\/a> for protecting marine ecosystems and restoring wild capture fisheries. The plan promotes an agenda of \u201c ecocivilization<\/a>,\u201d which emphasizes land\u2013sea coordination, green development, and social\u2013ecological balance.<\/p>\n

It also calls for the introduction of additional output control measures, which directly limit the amount of fish coming out of a fishery. Existing input control measures restrict the intensity of gear used to catch fish, but they may not be sufficient to protect ecosystems.<\/p>\n

Yi Huang, a member of this year\u2019s YSSP cohort, has made it her goal to figure out how social ecological balance can be achieved even as fishery regulations shift towards increased input and output control.<\/p>\n

Given the size of China\u2019s fishing industry, large scale change requires the abstract concepts of \u201cecocivilization\u201d to be translated into action, compliance, and enforcement at the local level. That means engaging with individual fishers, their communities, and their way of life, says Huang.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to control overfishing; the object of fishery management policy are fishers. So you need to understand human behavior to help you control overfishing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Huang\u2019s project investigates how changes in fishery management will affect demographic, geographic, and socioeconomic trends in the Chinese fisher population. With the guidance of her supervisors, she\u2019s also developing a bioeconomic model to analyze how output control measures like catch limits will affect ecological and socioeconomic conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to figure out how to improve enforcement of this kind of policy and see if we can use it to solve the overfishing problem at the same time as giving those in the fishing industry a better life,\u201d says Huang.<\/p>\n

Current input control measures like licensing systems, vessel buyback programs, closed seasons, restricted areas, and fisher relocation programs are meant to discourage overfishing and transition towards more sustainable practices. Nevertheless, a decline in fishing vessels and restricted fishing seasons only resulted in an increase in total vessel engine power and large spikes in fishing activity just prior to the closed season.<\/p>\n

According to the Chinese fishery statistical yearbook, the number of people employed in the fishing industry proliferated to 13.8 million in 2016, so in recent years the government has issued subsidies encouraging fishers not to fish in the off-season and to change vocation. Older fishers are hesitant to abandon an identity that has been passed down from generation to generation in their families. However, younger generations with access to higher education are lured by the prospect of more stable work outside of their fishing communities, which could really change the socioeconomic and demographic structure of coastal villages.<\/p>\n

With the potential for increased output controls to incur drastic changes in coastal communities, it\u2019s more important than ever that regulations are carefully designed with both socioeconomic and ecological factors in mind.<\/p>\n

Huang hopes her research will help inform the process of policy development, which involves balancing the needs of both vulnerable fisheries labor and delicate ecosystems.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen policymakers want to use output control in fishery management, maybe they will think more about the fisher or the socioeconomic aspect of the resolution,\u201d says Huang.<\/p>\n