March 10, 2025 — Nearly 16 million people in China depend on fisheries production for their livelihoods. A massive overhaul of the law governing their work, unveiled in December 2024, could impact all of them.
China’s current fisheries law came into force in 1986. The amendments proposed to it last year are the most extensive since 2000, Zhang Yanxuedan, an associate professor at Shanghai Ocean University’s College of Marine Culture and Law, told Dialogue Earth.
That revision 25 years ago brought in a system of management based on total allowable catch. It has had three minor updates in subsequent years.
In contrast, 48 of 50 existing articles would be amended in the latest proposals, which also add 32 new articles and a whole chapter on supervision and management of fisheries. This reform has been in preparation for a decade, says Zhang, and she has “great hope” that it will be passed this year.
The revision places a strong focus on sustainability and conservation, which has pleased many in environmental circles. Wang Songlin, president of the Qingdao Marine Conservation Society, says: “Generally, I feel like this version of [the] fisheries law has more emphasis on sustainable development and green development.”
Others say they want to see more protections for fishers’ livelihoods, as the legislation could alter many existing ways of harvesting the seas.
This is what you need to know about the looming shake up.
Tracking food from net to plate
Logging and sharing data about fish from the point of catch to the point of sale, also known as traceability management, can help curb illegal fishing and overfishing. A new article in the draft states that China “encourages fishing vessels to berth and unload their catch at designated ports and implement traceability management of catch”.
Huang Shan, an ocean campaigner at Greenpeace East Asia, points out that “encourages” is different to “mandates”. She says an unimplemented 2019 draft of the reform stipulated more specific measures, including product labelling that would give information of the vessel’s name and number, fishing license, fishing area and gear used for fishing. “But they were all deleted in this version,” she adds.
Zhang, who was involved in drafting the law, says the “encouragement” shows the government’s will to continuously drive better traceability so that the origins of all major catches will gradually be traceable. This would further curb illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and ensure the quality and safety of aquatic products, she adds.
But the enormous number of fishing boats in China makes implementation difficult, Zhang says. The nation has nearly 500,000 such vessels, of which 46,000 are large and medium-sized, according to official data. Checking compliance will put major pressure on ports, and authorities will need time to build enforcement capacity.
The draft law also proposes giving ports the authority to inspect foreign vessels and deny entry to those suspected of involvement in IUU fishing.
Zhou Wei, head of the oceans programme at Greenpeace East Asia, says the move shows China’s willingness to align with the Port State Measures Agreement to tackle IUU fishing by preventing non-compliant vessels from landing catches. The PSMA is a key international deal under the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization which China has for some years said it is working towards joining, most recently in a 2023 white paper.