About 12,000 fishermen will abandon their fishing boats to make a living on land in south China's Hainan Province.

Two key agreements on Beibu Bay demarcation and fishery cooperation between China and neighboring Viet Nam took effect on June 30.

The new demarcation sets clear marine borders between China and Viet Nam, but also breaks up the quiet life of local fishermen, officials said.

Being a major marine province, Hainan's fishery industry may be seriously hurt by the new agreements because more than 70 per cent of the fishing production of the island is from Beibu Bay, said Huang Liangsheng, a senior official from Marine and Fishery Department of Hainan.

Under the new agreements, fishermen will be confined to a specific area within Beibu Bay. More than 1,000 small fishing boats will have to leave the bay, a traditional fishing ground of the Hainan Island.

Beibu Bay, a semi-enclosed bay in the northwest of the South China Sea, provides a favorable environment for the breeding and fishing of a number of aquatic species.

An official from the Ministry of Agriculture told China Daily that many fishermen will be influenced by a three-month fishing ban that comes to an end in early August in the South China Sea.

"Temporarily, it is hard for us fishermen to become accustomed to the difficulties arising from the demarcation," said Chen Dawu, whose family has a 50-ton fishing boat. "But I believe in the care and support of the government. We are not worried."

"After the agreement goes into effect, the number of fishing boats entering Beibu Bay will be controlled," he noted.

"From the long-term perspective, this would be good for the protection of fishing resources in the region as well as for the sustainable development of the fishery industry," Chen said.

According to the fishery co-operation agreement, China and Viet Nam have agreed to set up a common fishery zone, a transitional area and buffer areas for small fishing boats in Beibu Bay.

Experts said such regulations have helped decrease the impact on fishing activities on both sides of the region.

Counter-measures

To minimize the influence, the Hainan provincial government is adopting a number of measures to help settle fishermen who lost their fishing areas, said Huang from the province's marine and fishery authorities.

The official estimated that there are more than 1,000 fishing boats, mainly medium and large ones, that will have to move to waters in the eastern and southern areas of the Hainan Island, the northern part of South China Sea or fishing grounds around Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha islands.

Another way out is to train fishermen in industry-related areas such as marine breeding, processing of marine products, circulation, transportation and non-fishery industries, Huang said.

In addition, new programs will be developed to provide job opportunities for the fishermen who have to leave the sea.

By using the funds allocated by the ministries of finance and agriculture, Hainan Province established 11 projects on marine products breeding and processing last year, Huang said.

Another measure is to set up preferential taxation policies for the shifted fishermen, said the official. For example, the fishing boats moving from Beibu Bay to Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha areas would be free from agricultural speciality taxation and protection fees of marine resources proliferation.

(China Daily July 7, 2004)