Why is it so difficult to clean up "hole-less" nets?
"The mesh is so tight that not a drop of water can pass through. Never mind catching all the small fish and shrimp in one net, it can even dredge up the mud and sand from the sea. At this rate, fishing in the sea will one day become 'looking for a needle in the ocean'!"
In recent years, overfishing has led to the rapid depletion of China's offshore fishery resources, and giving the offshore waters a rest is extremely urgent. Last year, the Ministry of Agriculture held its first on-site meeting in Zhejiang, sounding the clarion call for the comprehensive cleanup and rectification of "hole-less" nets and "three-no" fishing vessels; one year on, the Fisheries and Fishing Port Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture recently held another promotion meeting in Zhejiang, striking hard at "hole-less" nets.
It is understood that as early as 2004, the Ministry of Agriculture promulgated and implemented the "System of Minimum Mesh Size for Marine Fishing Gear." Yet to this day, illegal fishing gear is still proliferating, vast in quantity and wide in scope, and repeatedly banned without success, having become the "number one killer" of offshore fishery resources. Why is it so difficult to tackle this chronic problem?
Fishery enforcement "afraid to fine"
"Most coastal areas in Liaoning are home to subsistence fishermen whose main income comes from fishing. Many of them have been using illegal fishing gear for decades, and this gear represents almost all their savings. These people are neither willing nor able to switch to other fishing methods. Under such circumstances, how can we enforce the law?" Speaking of the difficulties, Jing Nanjin, deputy director of the Liaoning Provincial Department of Oceans and Fisheries, got straight to the point.
Liu Zhenzhou, deputy director of the Hebei Provincial Office of Agriculture and Industry, frankly admitted that fishermen using illegal gear such as "hole-less" nets are usually socially vulnerable groups who rely on fishing for a living. Lacking other employable skills and channels, fishery law enforcement departments easily come into conflict with their right to survival, and the awkward phenomenon of "laws that are hard to enforce" occurs from time to time.
Cui Fengyou, deputy director of the Shandong Provincial Department of Oceans and Fisheries, told reporters that the rectification and cleanup of illegal fishing gear is not just a matter of one net; it also involves multiple departments such as civil affairs, public security, justice, and industry and commerce. Relying on the fishery department alone makes it fundamentally difficult to crack this "chronic disease." Only when the Party committee and government take the lead and form a long-term mechanism for coordinated enforcement across departments can it be thoroughly eradicated.
It is understood that since 2014, Zhejiang has been led by the provincial Party committee and provincial government, launching the heavyweight "Fishing Ground Restoration and Revitalization Project," vigorously carrying out the "one crackdown, three rectifications" campaign in offshore areas across the province.
Who decides whether it is illegal or not?
At the meeting, several officials in charge of fishery departments from offshore provinces all invariably spoke of the current dilemma of "unclear standards." Taking Jiangsu as an example, Zhao Jun, deputy inspector of the provincial Ocean and Fisheries Bureau, told reporters that in daily fishery law enforcement, fishermen are often found to have modified their gear in all sorts of ways that cannot correspond to the existing catalog of permitted and transitional fishing gear, making it difficult for enforcement personnel to make on-the-spot determinations. Moreover, in the Yangtze River and inland waters, there is not even a unified catalog of gear names and mesh size standards.
So, who exactly should appraise fishing gear suspected of being illegal? Zhao Jun said that because there are no qualified fishing gear and fishing method appraisal institutions filed with the judicial authorities, or they are not clearly designated, the process of transferring and investigating cases is fraught with difficulties and setbacks at every turn. "The catalog of permitted fishing gear, as well as the fishing method appraisal institutions, urgently need to be clarified and publicly announced as soon as possible. These are of great significance for implementing the linkage and coordination between fisheries and the coast guard, public security border defense, industry and commerce, and other departments."
It is understood that China's current marine fishing gear catalog standards are divided into three categories: permitted, transitional, and prohibited. The most awkward is transitional fishing gear, which contains many vague concepts. In this regard, at the meeting, many localities proposed: for the sake of management and enforcement, could "transitional fishing gear not be established"? Previously, Guangxi had already passed local legislation to include some transitional fishing gear in the prohibited category, but in judicial practice, courts often apply national standards.
Who should manage the source of illegal fishing gear?
Throughout the entire "hole-less" net chaos, the most serious are electric pulse gear, multi-layer cod-end nets, ground cages, mudflat string nets, and coral nets. Many meeting delegates proposed that tactically, a "combination of dredging and blocking" must be adopted. Only by managing the production source of illegal fishing gear can this problem be cracked more quickly. However, saying it is simple; behind it lies layer upon layer of difficulty.
"Fishing gear production and sales involve departments such as industry and commerce and quality supervision, and fishery law enforcement agencies have no actual regulatory authority. Relying on a single agency alone cannot form a strong crackdown, especially regarding the sale of fishing gear with the minimum mesh size, for which there are even no relevant penalty provisions." said Ye Jianping, head of the enforcement corps of the Fujian Provincial Ocean and Fisheries Bureau.
As a national pioneer in cracking down on "hole-less" nets, at the beginning of this year Zhejiang fully launched the "Juvenile Fish Protection Battle," planning to use one year to explore the establishment of a recording system for the purchase and sale of catches through supervision of fishing gear production and sales, basically achieving the disappearance of prohibited fishing gear and "tight-mesh cod-end nets" from land, boats, and sea.
"Our tactic is: deepen the coordination mechanism among fishery administration, industry and commerce, economic and information technology, public security, maritime affairs, traffic police, and road administration departments, keeping a close eye on every link in the industrial chain such as illegal fishing at sea, illegal transport on land, illegal sales in markets, and misuse by merchants, so as to gradually establish a long-term control mechanism for prohibited and illegal fishing gear and achieve basic compliance in the use of marine fishing gear." said Huang Zhiping, director of the Zhejiang Provincial Ocean and Fisheries Bureau.