During an interview with Chinanews.com, Gao Zhiguo, director of the China Institute for Marine Affairs and deputy to the 10th National People's Congress (NPC), spoke about the pollution affecting the Bohai Sea and addressed the need to learn from successful models in foreign countries to swiftly pass legislation bolstering the area's environmental protection.

Xinhua statistics have indicated that 26 to 41 percent of the Bohai Sea area had consistently failed to meet required environmental protection standards over the last few years. A major contributing factor has been that over 81 percent of sewers located around the sea are disgorged straight into it.

Lying off the coast of north China, and surrounding one of China's most populous areas, the half-enclosed Bohai Sea contains unique topography and resources, lending it high economic value, said Gao. The sea, the shores of which encompass Shandong, Hebei, Liaoning and Tianjin, now forms one of China's three most developed regions, along with the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta.

"However, while enjoying rapid regional economic development, the area has come under threat from unprecedented ecological and environmental pressures," said Gao.

Gao revealed that the condition of coastal waters is becoming increasingly dire, as pollution increases in terms of severity and area affected. Ecological systems are being damaged with fishery resources at bursting point. Furthermore, an increase of maritime environmental calamities, such as red tides (an increase in nutrients in the water cause the appearance of phytoplankton that appear to turn the water red and threaten native wildlife) or oil spills, is piling on more pressure on Bohai Sea. Xinhua reported in January that 11 separate red tides were seen in the Bohai Sea in 2006.

Statistics released by Gao show that the Bohai Sea bore the brunt of 5.7 billion tons of toxic waste and 2 billion tons of solid waste being dumped into its waters each year. Widespread pollution has wreaked havoc on the sea's natural eco-system with many aquatic plants, fish, shrimps and crabs dying, harming the local fishing industry.

Gao explained that environmental pollution was continuing to worsen despite governmental measures taken to curb its impact in recent years. Addressing a potential solution, Gao pressed that "it is necessary to thoroughly solve the ecological and environmental problems facing the Bohai Sea through regional legislation."

Being half-enclosed, the Bohai Sea has a limited environmental capacity, Gao said, adding that Chinese environmental legislation was by and large inadequate. It tended to focus on wide-angle issues, addressing more general environmental protection problems, which proved wholly useless in terms of helping specific ecological scenarios such as that of the Bohai Sea. Furthermore, current Chinese laws on oceanic environmental protection suffer from the absence of an overseeing body. "The lack of necessary coordination and cooperation between departments has obviously held up the implementation of laws," Gao said.

Only specific legislation which takes into account the region's individual and particular needs can be of any assistance in helping standardize development and management for enclosed sea areas, Gao said. He put forward positive international models as examples to help speed up legislation helping bolster environmental protection in Bohai. "The successful experiences of Setonaikai in Japan and the Chesapeake Bay in the United States in harnessing sea pollution are very representative and China may use these as reference," Gao said.

Gao, who is also the executive vice chairman of the China Society for Maritime Law, said that in the past two decades, related Chinese departments and researchers have made much progress in carrying out regional legislation for inland sea environmental protection, creating an ideal climate in which to pass the Law on the Environmental Protection of the Bohai Sea.

(China.org.cn by Li Jingrong, March 14, 2007)