Current status of fisheries development in South China Sea area

Abstract

A brief review of current status of fisheries development in South China Sea is made based on fishery statistics currently available. The results are summarized as follows: (1) During the past decade the number of inboard powered boats operating in South China Sea area increased by 470%. Furthermore, a good number of fishing boats exceeding 100 gross tons have also appeared. (2) During the same period there appeared a massive explosion of trawl fishery in every country. (3) The present level of marine fishery production in the area is supposed to be some 4 million metric tons valued at about US$800 million. Although numerous fisheries exists trawl, purse seine and drift gill net fisheries have played a leading role and these three fisheries alone produced 55% of the total marine catch in the area.