Annual short-term moratoriums on squid fishing imposed by Chinese authorities are probably meaningless as there appeared to be little fishing activity in the areas before the bans were announced, analysis has claimed.
In 2020, China’s ministry of agriculture and rural affairs announced a pilot program banning fishing in parts of the south-west Atlantic Ocean from July to October, and parts of the eastern Pacific Ocean from September to December.
“During the period, all Chinese fishing boats in the area will suspend operations,” the ministry said.
However, an analysis by the conservation group Oceana suggested the moratoriums may have made little difference because the areas chosen were not typically fished by Chinese fleets anyway. In the south-west Atlantic moratorium area, Oceana found there had been no fishing conducted by Chinese fleets in the same time period in 2019. Between 1,800 and 8,500 fishing hours were detected in the zone in each of the five years to 2019. In the eastern Pacific zone, China’s fishing fleet appeared to fish only 38 hours in the year before the ban’s introduction.
“Ending squid fishing in areas where there is no fishing does nothing to protect squid,” said Oceana’s campaign director, Max Valentine.
China is the largest producer of distant water fishing stock in the world, and the largest catcher of squid, according to a 2020 study. It is reportedly responsible for half of all high seas squid fishing. In the first six months of this year, China conducted more than 330,000 hours of squid fishing.
“I think moratoriums are really great – it’s just like a marine protected area and stocks can rebound,” said Valentine.
“Unfortunately with these particular bans, they’re not in areas where crews particularly fish. We’re not seeing [bans] off the coast of Argentina or Peru where the Chinese fleets have fished for over a decade.”
Chinese authorities have said the moratorium areas are breeding grounds for squid, and bans will allow populations to rebound. However, Valentine said squid were highly migratory, and any areas purporting to protect breeding grounds would need to be much larger.
In recent years China has announced a number of measures purported to control the level of fishing its fleet conducts, including announcing caps on fishing boats in Chinese waters in 2021, and in five squid fishing grounds across the Pacific and Indian oceans in 2022. Under the government’s 13th five-year plan, spanning 2016 to 2020, China aimed to reduce its fishing fleet and total catch to 10m tonnes. The 14th plan aims to stick to the 10m tonnes cap, while continuing to reduce the number of large and medium-sized vessels.
However, environmental groups have expressed scepticism over the effectiveness and transparency of China’s efforts. A 2022 analysis of China’s squid fishing industry within Chinese waters found its ocean haul fell briefly from 2018 to 2019, but has since continued to rise. Under-reporting of catches in international waters and suspected acts of illegal fishing are common.
Oceana analysed automatic identification system (AIS) data from Global Fishing Watch (GFW), which relies on Chinese fishing vessels having the AIS tracking turned on and operating. In recent years there have been some major incidents of fishing vessels “going dark”, including within exclusive economic zone around the ecologically sensitive Galapagos Islands.
There are widespread concerns about global overfishing, and issues with existing reporting mechanisms, including in the European Union. Sustainable management of the oceans could lead to six times more food production, previous research has found, but current practices threaten to wipe out entire species.
Oceana called for governments to demand increased transparency at sea and traceability of imported seafood.
Additional research by Chi Hui Lin
