Two Chinese fisheries law enforcement vessels will patrol the North Pacific in the next two months along with the United States Coast Guard to stop illegal high seas fishing, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday.

The operation is a continuation of a 10-year Sino-US joint operation to implement a United Nations resolution banning use of drift nets on the high seas, said Peng Xiaohua, deputy director of the ministry's China Fisheries Law Enforcement Command (CFLEC). Drift nets are banned because they indiscriminately kill marine life and pose a threat to ships.

CFLEC's chief, Li Jianhua, and the US Coast Guard Commandant, Admiral Thomas Collins, signed a document yesterday to renew a 1993 memorandum of understanding that allows personnel from China and the United States to board vessels from each other's countries when investigating drift net fishing.

The bilateral enforcement agreement facilitates and expedites investigations of suspicious vessels when they are encountered on the high seas.

Since 1994, China has sent 34 ship riders to join US operations to detect, intercept and stop vessels suspected of illegal high-seas drift net fishing, said Peng.

The collective efforts have so far interdicted nine high-seas drift net vessels, according to a ministry statement.

"The joint law enforcement operation that we have had is perhaps the best example of US-China cooperation across both our governments," said Admiral Collins.

Following the 1991 UN moratorium on large-scale high-seas drift net fishing, China has issued circulars prohibiting the use of such nets by its high-seas vessels, said Vice-Minister of Agriculture Zhang Baowen.

Zhang said China is strongly committed to, and will continue to take responsible action to protect fish stocks on the high seas.

About 300 Chinese ships, mostly from east China's Zhejiang Province, fish on the high seas. Only five ships were seen using drift nets last year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

(China Daily June 11, 2004)