When it comes to the Beibu Gulf fishery, the older generation is sure to be familiar with it. Like the Zhoushan Fishery, the Beibu Gulf Fishery also belongs to the traditional Chinese "four major fisheries". According to the resource survey since the 1980s, there are about 90 to 1 million tons of seafood available for fishing in the Beibu Gulf, and more than 300,000 tons of high-quality seafood can be exported every year, which is a veritable "national fish pond".
Location map of the Beibu Gulf
Geographically, Beibu Bay is bordered by Guangxi to the north, Guangdong's Leizhou Peninsula to the east, Hainan to the southeast, and Vietnam to the west, a semi-enclosed shallow bay. According to the data, the Beibu Gulf produces more than 900 kinds of fish and more than 200 kinds of shrimp, including many subtropical and tropical high-end economic seafood, such as blue round eel, moray eel, mackerel, sea bream, P. longifolia, penaeus monodon and so on.
Blue round rays
The fishery resources in the Beibu Gulf are extremely rich, which has spawned more than 10 important economic fisheries, and the seabed landform is very flat, which is suitable for productive fishing all year round, especially for trawling operations. However, like the Zhoushan Fishery, the current Beibu Gulf Fishery has also fallen into the embarrassing situation of "no fish to catch", and many traditional fishermen have changed their professions and bid farewell to this "golden fishery" that has been brilliant for more than 40 years.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the fishery resources in the Beibu Gulf were still very stable, but long-term overfishing soon led to a decline in fishery resources. Surveys show that in the 30 years from the 1960s to the 1990s, the density of bottom trawlings in the Gulf of Tonkin decreased by more than 70 percent. The resource reserves of the once dominant species, such as the red snapper, the black seal shark and the long-spined silver perch, have been severely degraded, even to the point of irreversibility.
Since the beginning of the new century, the seawater fish produced in the Beibu Gulf have generally been small, and their economic value has become lower. The young age and miniaturization of fish catches have become a norm, which is also a direct reflection of the decline of fishery resources.
In 2015, more than 400 tonnes of real seabream were caught in the Northern Sea area of the Beibu Gulf, and overfishing remains severe
As we all know, the fish in the sea are not inexhaustible and inexhaustible, and only proper development can obtain long-term economic benefits. Domestic fisheries experts have estimated that the most suitable catch intensity in the Beibu Gulf region is 600,000 kilowatts (for motorized fishing vessels), and exceeding this standard is overexploitation.
However, as of 2017, the number of motorized fishing vessels in the Beibu Gulf region (Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan provinces) has reached 96,000, and the total power has reached a staggering 4.16 million kilowatts, almost 7 times the standard strength. Even more tragically, this overloaded fishing development has been going on for more than 30 years, and in this context, the decline of the Beibu Gulf fisheries has become inevitable.
In order to restore the fishery resources of the Beibu Gulf, the local fisheries department has issued many policies, such as delineating a no-fishing area for bottom trawling, setting up a protected area for juvenile fish and shrimp, and carrying out large-scale stocking activities in the resource restoration area. In 1999, China also implemented a seasonal fishing moratorium system in the South China Sea, which alleviated the decline of fishery resources to a certain extent.
On the other hand, in order to reduce the fishing pressure brought by fishermen, China has controlled marine fishing vessels since 2002, actively guided fishermen to change production and business, and issued 270 million yuan of relevant subsidies every year.
It is a foregone conclusion that some fishermen will be collectively persuaded to resign
Even so, the fishery resources in the Gulf of Tonkin are far from those of the 1970s. Some domestic experts pointed out that the fishery resources in the Beibu Gulf have not been restored for a long time, which has a lot to do with the "free development" of the countries surrounding the South China Sea.
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea clearly states that all countries in the world have the right to preferentially exploit their fishery resources within 200 nautical miles. By this standard, both China and Vietnam have the right to exploit the Beibu Gulf – in fact, Chinese and Vietnamese fishermen do the same.
Historically, Chinese and Vietnamese fishermen have been working together in the waters of the Beibu Gulf, and fishermen from the two countries have often run to each other's fisheries to carry out fishing activities, and the aquatic trade between the two sides is also quite close. However, this kind of cooperation generally stays on the matter of sharing the "fishing cake", and the two countries have been unable to reach a consensus on the issue of resource restoration, which has also brought great obstacles to the conservation of resources in the Beibu Gulf.
In 2006, the Hainan Border Defense Corps expelled illegally fished Vietnamese "three noes" fishing vessels
In addition to "cooperation", there have also been many frictions and conflicts between the two sides. Previously, the media reported that Chinese fishermen had been operating normally in the Beibu Gulf, but they had been attacked and detained by the Vietnamese armed forces. There are many similar fishing conflicts, all of which make the management of the Beibu Gulf a problem. How to develop the Beibu Gulf in a reasonable and fair manner has naturally become an unavoidable practical issue between China and Vietnam.
The delimitation of the Gulf of Tonkin dates back to the 1970s. Since then, China and Vietnam have gone through three stages of negotiations, spanning 27 years. Finally, in 2000, the two countries formally signed the Beibu Gulf Demarcation Agreement, which fairly resolved the fisheries dispute.
Distribution of Fishing Vessels in China and Vietnam (February 2021)
Although the demarcation of the Beibu Gulf has solved some historical problems, it has also caused fishermen in China's Beibu Gulf to lose more than 50% of their operating waters. It is gratifying that China and Vietnam have negotiated the establishment of a "cross-border common fishing area" with an area of 33,000 square kilometers based on the characteristics of fishery resources in the Beibu Gulf – an area in which fishermen from the two countries can supervise each other and work together, while also ensuring the healthy development of fishery resources in the region.
However, from the current development situation, the "way out" of the Beibu Gulf is no longer in the traditional fishing, which is beyond doubt. As a semi-open bay, there is less exchange between the Beibu Gulf and the outside water body, the marine fish produced are basically endemic to the Beibu Gulf, and most fish only migrate and breed in the bay – which means that once fishery resources are destroyed, they can no longer be compensated from other seas.
Troubled Beibu Gulf fishermen
Therefore, even if China and Vietnam can join forces to carry out resource recovery plans, it will take a long time to see results. What's more, Vietnam is currently located in the third camp of ASEAN countries, and its level of economic development is not as good as That of Hainan and Guangxi in China, so the "consciousness" of Vietnam's fishery sector to carry out breeding and stocking activities in the Beibu Gulf is not high.
Since Vietnam cannot be counted on, what will be the future of the Gulf of Tonkin? In fact, there are many development directions in the Beibu Gulf, one of which is the development of recreational fisheries.
First of all, from the geographical point of view, Beibu Gulf is located in the combination area of southwest, south China and the ASEAN economic circle, which is the forefront of China's ASEAN-oriented position, and it is also the most convenient sea passage in the southwest region, so passenger flow is not a problem.
Secondly, the climatic conditions in the Beibu Gulf region are pleasant, which is very suitable for leisure vacations and tourism. The average annual temperature here is around 22 °C, and the variety of seafood can further stimulate tourists to consume high-end seafood.
Seafood market by the marina in The Gulf of Tonkin
It is worth mentioning that there is a unique and long-standing fishing culture near the Shore of the Beibu Gulf, and fishing villages and fishing ports around the country have retained unique fishery cultural heritage, such as marriage culture, festival culture and so on. In addition, fishing boat costumes, fishing ceremonies, fishing proverbs and fishing songs are also another hidden property, and the use of these characteristic "fishing culture" to develop "fisherman's music" is promising.
In the context of the declining fishery resources in China's coastal waters, it is difficult to fundamentally restore the fishery resources in the coastal waters without adopting a long-term fishing ban system like the Yangtze River Basin. In this context, the proper development of recreational fisheries and the increase of fishermen's income may be a practical way out.
What do you think of the fishing dilemma in the Gulf of Tonkin and its solutions? Feel free to leave a message in the comments section to discuss!
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