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Fleet to Examine Fishery Agreement
China Tuesday announced that it will send a fishery administration fleet on June 1 into the East China Sea to ensure the country's new fishery pact with Japan is enforced.
"The fishery administration fleet will cruise and inspect the fishing waters, with a focus on the sea areas where foreign vessels fish in China's exclusive economic zone," said Li Jianhua, deputy director of the Fisheries Bureau under the Ministry of Agriculture.
The February pact, the first that China has signed with its neighbours according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, shifts China's fishery management from traditional offshore waters to the exclusive economic zone, Li said Tuesday in Beijing.
The UN convention that took effect in 1994 states that each coastal nation is allowed jurisdiction over resources, research, and environmental protection up to 200 nautical miles (370 kilometres) offshore.
However, most of the sea between China and Japan is less than 400 nautical miles wide, and China and Japan were once at odds over boundaries and fishery arrangements in the north part of the sea.
The transitional arrangement signed in February stipulates that both countries will manage fishing in certain places.
These areas include waters between 27 degrees and 30 degrees 40 minutes north latitude in the East China Sea and 52 nautical miles from the basic territorial sea lines of each country, Li said.
No change will be made to fishing activities south of 27 degrees north latitude and west of 125 degrees 30 minutes east longitude, he said.
In the shared waters between 124 degrees 45 minutes and 127 degrees 30 minutes east longitude, and north of the 30 degrees 40 minutes north latitude, boats from both countries may fish without licenses from the other side, the agreement says.
Except in the above areas, those in the fishing industry should get permits from the respective countries, notes the pact.
To strengthen the fishery administration on its coastal sea areas, and effectively safeguard the country's fishing rights and interests, China will soon establish a national fishery administration headquarters, according to Li.
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