Fishermen work on an aquafarm at Changhai county in Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning Province, July 8, 2019. Photo: Xinhua

Firecrackers rang out once again in fishing villages near Dalian Bay in Northeast China's Liaoning Province. This time it was not to celebrate the start of the fishing season. Villagers were greeting seafarers who had been at sea for almost two years. 

Wang Wubin, a captain of a fishery company in Dalian, told the Global Times that they had passed through 28 countries, before finally returning home. 

Deep sea fishing is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. Crews have to work with heavy, dangerous equipment and fishing nets, cope with high seas and unpredictable weather, and sometimes outwit maritime enforcers.

It may be even harder for Chinese fishers, whose traditional fishing areas have been confined to the narrow Pacific island chain. More frequent typhoons have greatly shortened fishing seasons, and ship collisions are common in narrow waterways. Some fishers have even been linked to predatory fishing and illegal border crossings. 

China's fishery administration departments have strictly regulated fishing activities and enforced scientific fishing moratoriums.

Struggle for a living

There have been reports of Chinese fishing boats having disputes with other countries for cross-border fishing or illegal transshipment of rare marine life in recent years. 

A crew member said one of the reasons for this is offshore fishery output is declining. 

"There are fewer and fewer fish to be caught, but the price of fuel is getting higher and higher. A medium-sized fishing boat won't make much money on a single offshore fishing trip," a fisher surnamed Zhang from Zhoushan Island of Zhejiang Province, told the Global Times.

Driven by huge profits, some fishers would choose to take a risk for illegal fishing.

According to media reports, 94 percent of the world's marine fishing is within countries' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). However, there are still many disputes over the EEZs demarcation throughout the world, which has led to fishery conflicts and territorial disputes between states and have become more severe.

In recent years, China has stepped up its crackdown on illegal fishing. Penalties range from a months-long ban on fishing, fines and cancelling fuel subsidies to the seizure of fishing boats and detention. 

"But we also got a lot of subsidies, coupled with the implementation of the fishing ban system," Zhang said. 

According to local media, the release of offshore fishery resources in 2017 and water protections helped Dongying of East China's Shandong Province increase its fishery revenue by 3.5 billion yuan.

New situation

The atmosphere at sea is quite different this year, given the severity of the COVID-19 around the world. The fishery administration and border control agencies of various countries have strengthened their control of territorial waters and set up no-fishing zones prohibiting any fishing boat from entering. 

However, some countries including the US keep accusing Chinese fishing crews of illegal fishing. 

Recently, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asserted that Chinese commercial fishing fleet "routinely" violates the sovereign rights and jurisdiction of coastal states to conduct unreported, and unregulated fishing.

Wang said that the days of being able to catch any kind of seafood anywhere are long gone. "Our ships are all equipped with a vessel monitoring system certificated by the Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMO), which automatically reports their position every hour. After the outbreak of the epidemic, we made fewer stops and stayed on the high seas as much as possible," Wang said.

Wang noted that with closed space and large crew, coupled with being far from the motherland, there was hardly any reliable rescue force, so the consequences would be unimaginable, if a crew member had contracted the COVID-19 while on shore leave.

In June, 92 crew from an American fishing vessel had tested positive for COVID-19, nearly three-fourths of the 126 people on board.

Cherishing the current life



Wang said the decline in seafood production and sales caused by the pandemic has made Chinese fishers pay more attention to sustaining fishery resources. 

"We constantly adjust our fishing plan at sea. I once hauled up five tons of garbage in a net, so I refuse to overfish and avoid using dense-mesh nets, which just leaves room for our future."

Zhang said the COVID-19 pandemic has made Chinese fishers cherish their lives even more. "After the outbreak of the epidemic, we found that we were helpless at sea, and there are many people who care about us on land." 

Recently, in Rongcheng, Northeast China's Shandong Province, a veteran captain became a social media celebrity. 

On Toutiao News, the "Fisher Laohai" account, which records the joys and sorrows of the fishing life, has 13,000 followers and 27,000 thumb ups. 

The operators of the account are a father and son. The father Xing Haigang is a fisher with 30 years' fishing experience, and his son Xing Yunfei is a postgraduate student studying in Beijing.

"I had never gone fishing, but my father went aboard when he was 17 years old. After running the video account, I better understand his bitterness," Xing Yunfei said.

"Our family has a 100-ton fishing boat, but in the face of fierce wind, it is just like a little ant," Xing Yunfei told the Global Times. 

"When I was a child, I thought that every time my father went out to sea, he went sightseeing, because he always told me how magnificent the scenery of the Yellow Sea is, but now I learned that far-sea fishing involves a myriad of complicated procedures, and a slight mistake can lead to disaster," he said.

Xing Haigang has embarked on his second voyage since the fishing season began. His first voyage lasted only eight hurried days before a storm approached. After a half-day's rest at home he set sail again. 

The fishing season was considerably shortened this year, due to the coronavirus lockdown. 

But the support and encouragement from netizens make Xing's family very positive and optimistic about the future.

On Saturday, the "Fisherman Laohai" account updated a video of Xing Haigang catching a big octopus at sea. Many people wished them a safe voyage by posting comments, hoping that they will return home with their haul full of seafood.