The Oceans Asia Project – Fisheries Management in the East and South China Seas

Asia’s oceans are home to some of the richest and most diverse fisheries in the world. Yet its regional fisheries are threatened by pollution, excessive and destructive fishing practices, as well as coastal habitat modification such as reclamation for aquaculture or urban and industrial land. Economic growth agendas and political disputes over territorial claims compound these threats to fisheries sustainability and marine biodiversity especially in the South China Sea (SCS).

In 2014, ADMCF commissioned leading fisheries experts from the University of British Columbia (UBC) to model different climate change and fishing management scenarios to predict the future productivity and ecosystem health of the SCS over the following 30 years (to 2045). The project aimed to generate regional awareness, inform dialogue as well as generate ideas for reform. Its highly publicised findings were released in 2015 in the report ‘Boom or Bust – the Future of Fish in the South China Sea’.

In 2017, ADMCF commissioned UBC to expand this work to the East China Sea (ECS). At the same time, it was determined that there was a need to understand the implications of indiscriminate and unregulated bottom trawl fishing (termed here ‘Feed Grade Fisheries’) for productivity and biodiversity in both the SCS and ECS. With additional research undertaken by the University of Hong Kong, this wider scope aims to enable identification and documentation of the history and development (social/economic/biological) of the transition from target fisheries to ‘Feed Grade Fisheries’ in the SCS and ECS, and to determine the implications for our marine resources. The research findings will be released in 2020.