East China's Zhejiang province has taken legal measures to control the number of fishing ships in local ports in the new year to protect the fishing resources in the ocean.

Issued Dec. 28, 2002, the first set of local regulations of its kind in China will control the number of ships through restrictions on new ones to be used in the local area.

According to the regulations, new ships cannot be built before the old ones are out of use, and shipyards cannot build new ships with greater power than the old ones they are replacing.

The local regulations set up a system, whereby fishing ships that have reached their expiry date or can not sail any more should be scrapped, whether dismantled or used as artificial "reefs" for fish in the ocean.

The regulations also encourage private investment in developing fishing ports by granting investors rights to use and manage the ports.

Zhejiang is an important coastal province in China, ranking first in the amount of fishing production in the whole country. The production value of fishery in Zhejiang accounts for 29 percent of the total production value of agriculture in the province. Statistics show that Zhejiang has 243 ports and over 42,000 fishing ships used in the ocean.

(Xinhua News Agency January 6, 2003)