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Ever-worsening pollution in China's coastal waters will hinder exploration of marine resources, warns an article in Outlook Weekly.

China has an 18,000-kilometre coastline, more than 6,500 islands and nearly 3 million square kilometers of "blue territory."

A large portion of the abundant marine resources has yet to be tapped. China's annual marine output accounts for less than 2 percent of the world's marine output.

China, however, has one of the world's most seriously deteriorated marine ecosystems, which restricts development of marine industries.

The area of unclean sea waters in China in 2001 was about 173,390 square kilometers, down slightly from the previous year, but the area of seriously contaminated waters increased by 4,000 square kilometers, the State Oceanic Administration reported.

Most of the heavily polluted waters are close to highly populated, industrial cities in China's coastal regions.

Pollution, over fishing and the construction of coastal projects have pushed many fish to the brink of extinction.

In East China's Shandong Province, the catch from its northern Bohai Sea has slumped from 3.32 million tons in 1999 to 2.78 million tons in 2001.

There are fewer major cash fish in the Bohai, even during fishing season. Fish previously teeming in the sea - including the hairtail and yellow croaker - must now be imported.

In Jiangsu Province, fishermen near Xinyi River's estuary have suffered heavy losses. Their aquatic products have been killed by sewage from the river's upper reaches.

The fishermen can't seek remuneration because it is impossible to determine which sewage producers along the river should be held accountable, the article said.

Xinyi River winds through Shandong and Jiangsu provinces. It has become a de facto sewage pipeline due to the provinces' poor waste-control policies and systems.

Oxygen-guzzling organisms and heavy metallic materials, major causes of "red tide," are the main pollutants in Jiangsu's coastal waters.

Red tide reduces oxygen in water, which in turn kills marine life.

More than 90 percent of these pollutants are emitted from factories and residential sewage of prosperous provinces, according to the article.

Although Jiangsu has closed a lot of polluting businesses - including small cement plants and paper mills - in recent years, controlling waste remains a difficult job for provincial officials.

Jiangsu accounts for 1 percent of China's territory, but 6 percent of its population and 10 percent of its gross domestic product.

The situation is worse in the East China Sea, which is south of the Yellow Sea and adjacent to Zhejiang and Fujian provinces.

The vast amount of pollutants in the Yangtze, China's longest river, flow from west to east before entering the sea.

Coastal waters near Zhejiang in 2001 accounted for 26 of the 77 red tide outbreaks in China, noted the article.

Over fishing in past decades has almost exhausted the resources in the once fertile sea.

Some fishermen living in the Xiangshan Peninsula e-mailed the United Nations last month urging the world body to protect the sea, the article reported.

Actions have been taken to change the status quo.

The National People's Congress, China's top legislative body, in 1999 enacted legislation on maritime environmental protection.

The government over the next five years plans to cut the number of offshore fishing boats by 30,000, and to transfer more than 300,000 fishermen to other businesses, such as cultivating and processing aquatic products.

Those are good solutions to many long-standing problems affecting marine fisheries, and are crucial for the industry's sustainable development, the article quoted Du Qinglin, minister of agriculture, as saying.

The central government has allocated 270 million yuan (US$32.6 million) annually between 2000 and 2004 to help coastal fishermen scrap their boats and start new businesses.

Additional subsidies will be decided according to fishermen's needs and the government's finances.

Provinces and municipalities - including Tianjin, Hebei, Liaoning and Shandong - in North China near the Bohai Sea will spend 55.5 billion yuan (US$6.7 billion) in the next decade to improve the marine environment.

The plan was approved last year by the State Council.

The plan aims to reduce 20 percent of pollutants - such as phosphate and inorganic nitrogen materials - to the Bohai by 2005, and by another 15 per cent by 2010.

It aims to significantly improve the marine environment by 2015, the article reported.

The current marine administration system has yet to be reformed to better protect the marine environment, the article reported.

Various departments - including the environment and transportation - manage China's marine resources.

There sometimes are conflicts between these departments over how to manage marine resources.

China must unify marine administration in one powerful ministry, the article reported.

(China Daily September 27, 2002)