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The Longest Fishing Moratorium Starts on May 1

Category: Ningbo News
Published: Tuesday, 09 May 2017 09:36

At 12:00 on May 1, the Fishing Moratorium of East China Sea officially started. In the next 138 days, fresh fish from East China Sea would not be available for Ningbo citizens. In recent years, overfishing has been on a rise, causing low fish stocks. In January 2017, the Ministry of Agriculture issued a notice on the adjustment of fishing moratorium, making big adjustment to the fishing moratorium schedules. According to the notice, the fishing moratorium of all China's waters will begin from 12 o’clock of May 1 to 12 o’clock of September 16. The moratorium will last nearly one month more than before, which is the longest since the establishment of moratorium system 22 years ago. 

With the fishing boats returning into the harbors, the price of seafood in Ningbo has been rising gradually. Some fishermen started to stock up on seafood, planning to sell it with a higher price after the holiday of May Day. As a result, trading volume of seafood in wholesale markets was down by more than 300 tons to only half of that in high seasons. The price of pomfret, red ointment crabs, octopus, mackerel and other seafood has risen by nearly 30% in 15 days. "The stock of fresh seafood is decreasing while there is still a high market demand.” said a seafood seller. According to him, the price of the seafood that had not been very popular has also rised dramatically during the May Day holiday to its highest record in 2017