Project of Abandoned Fishing Net Reduction and Pollution Control in Daiquyang-Zhongjieshan Fishing Ground, Zhoushan, Zhejiang
Baseline information:
Zhongjieshan Island is located at the eastern edge of the mouth of the Yangtze River, and is one of the core locations of the Zhoushan Fishing Ground. It was once the largest offshore fishing ground in China, rich in aquatic resources, with 365 species of fish, and a suitable habitat for breeding, growth, baiting and overwintering of many kinds of fish, producing the "four major fish products" such as yellowtail, small yellowtail, scallop and squid. However, due to the anthropogenic impact of prolonged and over-intensive fishing in the past 40 years, coupled with the increased damage caused by land-based pollution and abandoned fishing gear, the diversity index of marine biological resources has been significantly reduced. Forty years ago, the proportion of the four major economic fish species - large and small yellow croaker, striped bass and cuttlefish - in the total fish catch in Zhoushan dropped from 76.96% in 1974 to 36.06% in 1984, and is even lower today.
At present, the traditional spawning grounds and baiting grounds in Zhoushan fishing grounds have basically failed to form a fishing season, and it is difficult to stop the trend of marine desertification, especially the serious accumulation of plastic garbage on the seabed near the harbor of the resident islands, the abandoned stone drift netting nets wrapped around the reefs, and the lead fishing pendants and broken lines containing heavy metals scattered on the reefs, so it is difficult for large sedentary fish to approach the islands and reefs to feed. And the abandoned fishing gear poses serious safety hazards to the navigation of vessels coming and going from Ningbo-Zhoushan Port, the world's "No.1 port".
The undifferentiated, non-selective, one-time fishing with stone drift nets and unrestricted fishing have caused more and more damage to the habitat of fishery resources, which has become a key obstacle to the improvement of local marine ecological resources, prompting governments at all levels to pay attention to the cleanup of seabed trash and the management of traceability initiated by all sectors of society, stimulating the public's consciousness of marine environmental protection, and accelerating the introduction of marine ecological protection initiatives such as penalties for discarding abandoned fishing gear and recycling old fishing nets.
Since 2018, Changtu Town has carried out the deepening of fisheries ecological civilization, combined with the fishing port rectification action, continued to carry out "one fight and three rectification", dismantled three small vessels on site, and cleaned up more than 300 illegal prohibited nets. It has also carried out refined management of fishing harbor garbage classification, built 2 new large garbage disposal stations, purchased plastic melters, effectively enhanced the disposal capacity of daily problems such as fishing gear garbage and fishing vessel domestic garbage, newly installed oil collection devices at the fishing wharf, and achieved remarkable results in marine garbage classification, and successfully created a "national health township".
Main problems:
Through the Zhoushan crab drift net abandoned fishing gear operation most concentrated Zhujiajian Yueao village abandoned fishing gear social investigation and research, abandoned fishing gear generated by the principle of the seabed obstacles lead to crab drift net, crab cage and other operational fishing gear caused by mutual hooking and entanglement, coupled with the interaction of currents, wind and waves, resulting in a superimposed effect, accumulating over time, making the impact and scope of abandoned fishing gear to the point of no control.
Main reasons:
Firstly, the properties of disposable fishing gear itself determines the unecological and unsustainable production methods.
Secondly, it is caused by the market value behavior. The generation of discarded fishing gear is unavoidable when the cost of production time of fishing boats in fishing grounds is much higher than the cost of fishermen's replacement of new nets.
Thirdly, the old nets recovered are high castings, and the objective space limitation of producing fishing boats also leads to the phenomenon of objective and subjective abandonment of some fishing boats to the sea, which is reflected by the survey that the percentage is between 5-10%.
Main problems:
First, the hidden nature of discarded fishing gear. It is difficult for the lay public to perceive the real existence of such threats, and its harmfulness and seriousness are easily ignored by the public and at the decision-making level.
Second, the complexity of governance. The mobility of the sea and the difference of maritime culture as well as the difficulty of evidence collection invariably increase the complexity of governance.
Third, the interactivity of the roles of victimization and victimization. There are certain subjective and objective reasons for the generation of abandoned fishing gear, as fishermen are both the aggrieved party and the main victim, thus, the dual role increases the difficulty of setting up governance links.
Fourth, the long-term nature of governance. Nowadays, mutual harm among members of society is unavoidable. The intersection of global governance and regional governance, sectoral responsibilities and public accountability, the matching of social resources and the disposal of governance funds cannot be clarified and specified in the short term, so governance is necessarily long-term.
Activities:
Activity 1.1: Carry out training for fishermen in new business positions
Activity 1.2: Assisting the government in the cleanup of abandoned fishing gear on islands and reefs
Activity 2.1: Carry out marine environmental protection public science popularization education
Activity 2.2: Nurturing a team of local women volunteers
Activity 3.1: Conducting a survey of local abandoned fishing gear
(including three survey tasks: social survey of fishing communities in Changtu Town, underwater survey of discarded fishing gear on the seabed in this project area, and survey of status of disposal and management of discarded fishing gear)
Activity 3.2: Preparation of thematic investigation reports
Anticipated outcomes:
1.1 Increased conversion rate of fishing vessels and reduced generation of discarded fishing gear
1.2 Reduction in the number of discarded fishing gear and significant improvement in coastal habitat
2.1 Raising environmental awareness and willingness to act among residents and fishing village cadres
2.2 Promoting the status and role of local women's volunteer organizations in the action of sorting and recycling discarded fishing gear
3.1 Complete project investigation tasks and provide support for policy recommendations
3.2 Survey results are adopted by the local city or county people's government
Zhongjieshan Island is located at the eastern edge of the mouth of the Yangtze River, and is one of the core locations of the Zhoushan Fishing Ground. It was once the largest offshore fishing ground in China, rich in aquatic resources, with 365 species of fish, and a suitable habitat for breeding, growth, baiting and overwintering of many kinds of fish, producing the "four major fish products" such as yellowtail, small yellowtail, scallop and squid. However, due to the anthropogenic impact of prolonged and over-intensive fishing in the past 40 years, coupled with the increased damage caused by land-based pollution and abandoned fishing gear, the diversity index of marine biological resources has been significantly reduced. Forty years ago, the proportion of the four major economic fish species - large and small yellow croaker, striped bass and cuttlefish - in the total fish catch in Zhoushan dropped from 76.96% in 1974 to 36.06% in 1984, and is even lower today.
At present, the traditional spawning grounds and baiting grounds in Zhoushan fishing grounds have basically failed to form a fishing season, and it is difficult to stop the trend of marine desertification, especially the serious accumulation of plastic garbage on the seabed near the harbor of the resident islands, the abandoned stone drift netting nets wrapped around the reefs, and the lead fishing pendants and broken lines containing heavy metals scattered on the reefs, so it is difficult for large sedentary fish to approach the islands and reefs to feed. And the abandoned fishing gear poses serious safety hazards to the navigation of vessels coming and going from Ningbo-Zhoushan Port, the world's "No.1 port".
The undifferentiated, non-selective, one-time fishing with stone drift nets and unrestricted fishing have caused more and more damage to the habitat of fishery resources, which has become a key obstacle to the improvement of local marine ecological resources, prompting governments at all levels to pay attention to the cleanup of seabed trash and the management of traceability initiated by all sectors of society, stimulating the public's consciousness of marine environmental protection, and accelerating the introduction of marine ecological protection initiatives such as penalties for discarding abandoned fishing gear and recycling old fishing nets.
Since 2018, Changtu Town has carried out the deepening of fisheries ecological civilization, combined with the fishing port rectification action, continued to carry out "one fight and three rectification", dismantled three small vessels on site, and cleaned up more than 300 illegal prohibited nets. It has also carried out refined management of fishing harbor garbage classification, built 2 new large garbage disposal stations, purchased plastic melters, effectively enhanced the disposal capacity of daily problems such as fishing gear garbage and fishing vessel domestic garbage, newly installed oil collection devices at the fishing wharf, and achieved remarkable results in marine garbage classification, and successfully created a "national health township".
Main problems:
Through the Zhoushan crab drift net abandoned fishing gear operation most concentrated Zhujiajian Yueao village abandoned fishing gear social investigation and research, abandoned fishing gear generated by the principle of the seabed obstacles lead to crab drift net, crab cage and other operational fishing gear caused by mutual hooking and entanglement, coupled with the interaction of currents, wind and waves, resulting in a superimposed effect, accumulating over time, making the impact and scope of abandoned fishing gear to the point of no control.
Main reasons:
Firstly, the properties of disposable fishing gear itself determines the unecological and unsustainable production methods.
Secondly, it is caused by the market value behavior. The generation of discarded fishing gear is unavoidable when the cost of production time of fishing boats in fishing grounds is much higher than the cost of fishermen's replacement of new nets.
Thirdly, the old nets recovered are high castings, and the objective space limitation of producing fishing boats also leads to the phenomenon of objective and subjective abandonment of some fishing boats to the sea, which is reflected by the survey that the percentage is between 5-10%.
Main problems:
First, the hidden nature of discarded fishing gear. It is difficult for the lay public to perceive the real existence of such threats, and its harmfulness and seriousness are easily ignored by the public and at the decision-making level.
Second, the complexity of governance. The mobility of the sea and the difference of maritime culture as well as the difficulty of evidence collection invariably increase the complexity of governance.
Third, the interactivity of the roles of victimization and victimization. There are certain subjective and objective reasons for the generation of abandoned fishing gear, as fishermen are both the aggrieved party and the main victim, thus, the dual role increases the difficulty of setting up governance links.
Fourth, the long-term nature of governance. Nowadays, mutual harm among members of society is unavoidable. The intersection of global governance and regional governance, sectoral responsibilities and public accountability, the matching of social resources and the disposal of governance funds cannot be clarified and specified in the short term, so governance is necessarily long-term.
Activities:
Activity 1.1: Carry out training for fishermen in new business positions
Activity 1.2: Assisting the government in the cleanup of abandoned fishing gear on islands and reefs
Activity 2.1: Carry out marine environmental protection public science popularization education
Activity 2.2: Nurturing a team of local women volunteers
Activity 3.1: Conducting a survey of local abandoned fishing gear
(including three survey tasks: social survey of fishing communities in Changtu Town, underwater survey of discarded fishing gear on the seabed in this project area, and survey of status of disposal and management of discarded fishing gear)
Activity 3.2: Preparation of thematic investigation reports
Anticipated outcomes:
1.1 Increased conversion rate of fishing vessels and reduced generation of discarded fishing gear
1.2 Reduction in the number of discarded fishing gear and significant improvement in coastal habitat
2.1 Raising environmental awareness and willingness to act among residents and fishing village cadres
2.2 Promoting the status and role of local women's volunteer organizations in the action of sorting and recycling discarded fishing gear
3.1 Complete project investigation tasks and provide support for policy recommendations
3.2 Survey results are adopted by the local city or county people's government
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Project Snapshot
Grantee:
Zhoushan City Green Marine Ecology Promotion Center
Country:
China
Area Of Work:
Chemicals
Grant Amount:
US$ 0.00
Co-Financing Cash:
US$ 89,320.53
Co-Financing in-Kind:
US$ 18,873.86
Project Number:
CPR/DLF/CH/2021/06
Status:
Currently under execution
Project Characteristics and Results
Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods
1. Reduce the number of abandoned fishing gear at source and carry out underwater abandoned fishing gear cleaning activities to improve the local habitat habitat, so that fishery resources can be restored and fishermen's income can be improved.
2. Through relevant skills training and policy advocacy, guide fishermen to shift to leisure fisheries with value-added services, promote the innovative development of marine ecological industry such as "fishing instead of fishing", vigorously develop fishing, water sports, island tours, island folk culture experience and other fishery tourism integration products, and help fishing communities achieve "Limit production and increase income".
3. Reduce the fishing cost of local fishermen by classifying and recycling discarded fishing gear, and make reasonable use of the recovered discarded fishing gear to make nutritious soil and handicrafts in order to improve their recycling value and increase the income of local residents.
Gender Focus
Most of the women in fishing villages and communities are family members of fishermen, and young people are engaged in fishing operations or their fathers and grandfathers also make a living from fishing, so there is an urgent need for reduction and prevention of abandoned fishing gear and ecological restoration of habitats. Through training and activities, the project promotes local women and youth to improve their ecological concepts and professional skills, and to develop a mentality of ownership. The women, as fishermen's families, are uniquely positioned to promote and monitor fishermen's behavior.
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SGP Country office contact
Ms. Yi Liu
Phone:
86 10 85320731
Email:
Ms. Meijia Lu
Phone:
+861085320743
Email:
Address
No. 2 Liangmahe Nanlu
Beijing, Chaoyang, 100600
Beijing, Chaoyang, 100600
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