Experts:China Needs to Enhance Marine Environmental Protection

Chinese experts have advised the country to enhance its marine conservation program as increased use of the sea for economic gain threatens the marine environment.

Wu Jia has the details.

China's marine economy has experienced a boom over the past decade, recording an average annual growth rate of over 16 percent.

Figures from the State Oceanic Administration show that China's Gross Ocean Product amounted to three trillion Yuan, or about 400 billion US dollars, last year.

But marine pollution has also been on the rise.

Yu Zhiming, an oceanology researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, explains one of the reasons.

"The over-development of offshore fish farming has polluted some areas of the sea with excessive amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus. As a result, marine waters are increasingly suffering from eutrophication and red tides in recent years."

According to the State Oceanic Administration, China's marine fishing industry made up 20 percent of the marine economy last year. The only sectors that charted higher were marine transportation and coastal tourism.

Meanwhile, the area of marine water classed as polluted jumped to nearly 150,000 square kilometres in 2009, an increase of 7 percent year-on-year.

Last year alone, China's coastal area reported nearly 70 occurrences of red tides, affecting a total of 14,000 square kilometres of marine water.

In light of this situation, Yu Zhiming says the country should come up with effective ways to protect its marine environment.

"We should encourage ecological ocean farming. For example, we can carefully select the types of fish we breed in a fish farm so that the waste of one kind of fish functions as food for another. Moreover, we should encourage the cultivation of macro-algae to purify the waters plagued by eutrophication."

Zhao Weihong, another researcher from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, says comprehensive measures are needed to address marine pollution.

"Many of the pollutants in China's marine waters come from the land. So the authorities should take coordinated steps to treat pollution in the sea and on the land as well."

The State Oceanic Administration said that the most heavily polluted marine waters – such as those of Bohai Bay, the Yangtze River estuary and the Pearl River estuary - are situated beside booming terrestrial areas.

Also, over 70 percent of the country's monitored sewage outlets discharge an excess of pollutants into the sea.

For CRI, I'm Wu Jia.