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Chinese Legislators Call for Aquatic Resources Protection
Chinese lawmakers called for more stringent measures to protect fishery resources and the environment when reviewing draft amendments to the Fishery Laws Tuesday.
Members of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top law-making body, held a heated debate on the issue.
Yang Zhenhuai, vice chairman of the NPC Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, said that it is vital that it is written in the first article of the amendment that fishery resources should be protected, which is beneficial to the sustainable development of the fishery industry.
Yang proposed the establishment of some protection zones including no-fishing zones and seasonal fishing ban zones to protect rare animals such as the Yangtze River white-flag dolphins as well as the environment.
As the number of fishing vessels last year is two to three times of that in the 1980s, Yang proposed to keep tight control on the number of fishing boats to better protect fishery resources.
Zhu Xiangyuan, a renowned expert on biology and a member of the NPC Standing Committee, argued that people should be careful about importing fish because some "genetically modified" fish species are very brutal and could devour aboriginal fishes. If this happened, the local ecological balance would be damaged.
Zhu also made a proposal which urges to establish stricter and more specific regulations on poisonous bait and foodstuffs that contain antibiotics.
Wang Weitian, a lawmaker from eastern Shandong Province, proposed that the State should take water quality and location into account when demarcating aquatic product cultivation zones because the water in some areas is polluted and unsuitable for aquatic product cultivation.
Zhao Ke, a non-voting deputy of the NPC, believes that a seasonal fishing ban should be imposed on some lakes and rivers where the potential for fish or aquatic product cultivation is poor, so as to protect the already fragile ecological environment.
The legislators also discussed some other issues such as issuance of various licenses for fishing and aquatic product cultivation, fishery administration and supervision.
The legislators agreed that the draft, which has gone through two reviews, is feasible and proposed to put the amendments to vote at the ongoing 18th meeting of the NPC Standing Committee.
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