Seafood prices drop as fishing ban ends

Writer:   | Editor: Holly Wang  | From:  | Updated: 2019-08-20

Dozens of large fishing boats sailed from Yueliangwan Port in Nan’ao after noon on Friday. Liu Xudong

The seafood market is buzzing again following the end of the summer’s fishing ban in the South China Sea, as dozens of large fishing boats sailed from Yueliangwan Port in Nan’ao after noon on Friday, the Shenzhen Economic Daily reported.

This year, the fishing ban in Guangdong Province began at 12 p.m. May 1 and lasted until 12 p.m. Aug. 16.

A man surnamed Qin and his wife from Sichuan Province joined forces to prepare for the catch as soon as the clock passed 12 a.m. Friday. Qin’s wife dragged nine heavy bags of fishing nets from the fishing gear market and handed them onto the boat one bag after the other.

“I hope there will be a harvest of red crabs, fish and shrimp that can be sold at a fair price. After all, we have rested so long,” Qin’s wife told the Daily. She said they can generally earn more than 1,000 yuan (US$142) if there is a good harvest.

On the shore, seafood restaurants were seen cleaning up the sinks to make room for freshly caught seafood.

A restaurant owner surnamed Li told the Daily that the seafood supply will become increasingly abundant following the end of the fishing moratorium, and the prices of some relatively expensive seafood, such as mantis shrimps, will gradually decline.

“In the past two weeks, the price of mantis shrimps reached about 150 yuan [per half kilo], and before that, the price had been about 90 yuan,” Li said. He estimated that the price of such seafood would fall back to its previous level after the fishing ban is lifted.

According to statistics, there were a total of 1,481 fishing vessels in the city in 2019, of which 1,160 fishing boats were required to return to port when the ban started.

Reducing the catch of fish and prolonging the fishing ban period was inevitable, as overfishing has caused serious damage to the marine ecological environment, said the city’s fishery administration.

During the period, 410 fishing boats were inspected and 10 cases of illegal fishing were reported. Additionally, over 130 illegal boats and 65,000 meters of illegal fishing nets were seized, according to the administration.