Where will it go?, The traditional fishing industry that cannot be returned

On September 1st, in Chuwang Village, Yantai City, Shandong Province, 71 year old Niu Chunxia did not wait for the Kaihai Festival.

She grew up in a village since childhood. In early September of previous years, the four month fishing ban in the Yellow and Bohai Seas came to an end. Amidst the sound of singing and dancing, hundreds of fishing boats left the port, which was the most important moment of the year for fishermen.

Before the performance started this year, the village suddenly received a message: "Let's not do it." Niu Xiaoli was a bit angry, and the villagers worked overtime to dismantle the platform they had built. When she inquired, it was rumored that it was due to the discharge of nuclear wastewater. Do not make too much noise when opening the sea.

Located in Chuwang Village, one of the four major fishing grounds in China, the Yellow and Bohai Sea Fishing Ground, there is the largest mass fishing port in the Jiaodong area.

When the Internet is full of anxiety about seafood and fishery, Chuwang Village seems calm in reality.

The aftermath is long. With the decline of marine resources and the increase in shipping costs, reducing ships and shifting production has become a common trend in fishing villages. Where will the traditional fishing industry, which cannot be returned, go?

The fishing boat docked in the morning. Photographed by Feng Rui

Rumors of nearshore fishing

Starting from the end of August, there have been constant rumors online: "Can seafood really be eaten?" "In 240 days, it will be in the domestic waters." For a while, many consumers rushed into the seafood market and hoarded their goods.

"The market is very good now, supply is in short supply and prices are constantly rising," said seafood dealer Wu Yujie, who has hardly had any free time in recent weeks. On September 2nd, he sold 1200 boxes of seafood for 790000 yuan in one day. Many peers have doubled their order volume directly. Until September 8th, he saw the rising revenue gradually stabilize.

The rumored offshore fishing has been the pillar industry of Chuwang Village for generations. But life and business here seem to have not been greatly affected by this.

"There are all kinds of statements in the village, whether they are true or false, whether they are discussed correctly or not, and I don't know anything," murmured Niu Chunxia, but since September, few villagers have mentioned this matter again.

On the morning of September 7th at 7 o'clock, Chuwang Fishing Port was crowded with people. Fishermen put up umbrellas and foam boxes to wait for passing fishmongers to find and pack. In a few hours, these fish catches can be transported to wholesale markets, seafood suppliers, and restaurants.

People are waiting at the dock for fish to be caught. Photographed by Feng Rui

Liu Xiaoli set up a sunshade umbrella in front of the stall. Photographed by Feng Rui

Niu Chunxia's daughter Liu Xiaoli is setting up a stall by the dock selling fish. When she got married at the age of 24, she bought her first boat with her husband. The two have been working for 22 years.

What she is currently worried about is the fish harvest this year, which is even worse than in previous years. "The resources in the sea are becoming increasingly scarce, making it even harder to do work."

At this moment, fish vendors Zhang Peng and Wu Yujie are picking fish from a large ship docked at the port. An hour and a half later, Zhang Peng, who had brought five baskets, only packed one and a half baskets of skin shrimp, totaling 5 pounds. Many fish pickers and villagers returned empty handed to dampen their spirits.

Zhang Peng is collecting fish at the dock. Photographed by Feng Rui

Zhang Peng and Wu Yujie collected a basket and a half of skin shrimp. Photographed by Feng Rui

"The fish caught in the nearshore are all in tattered condition now," said Wu Yujie. After removing small fish and poorly looking ones, it would be good if there were only one tenth left.

Zhang Peng smiled bitterly. Today's experience has been the norm in recent years. The golden period of abundant traditional fishery resources and substantial income is gone forever.

What fishermen are currently feeling is that changes in fishery resources are affecting their livelihoods and future.

The transport vehicle is waiting on the side. Photographed by Feng Rui

Fishing boats anchored at the port. Photographed by Feng Rui

"Unable to keep up with the speed of catching."

In 1991, 3-year-old Zhang Peng spent his time by the seaside every day. He lifted the fishing line with his hand and could catch more than ten at a time. "At that time, there were a lot of fish," he recalled with a smile, as each fish he caught was nearly half a meter long.

Niu Chunxia said that 2000 years ago, in Chuwang Village, the ratio of "fish farmers" and "crop growers" was about 50-50. Liu Xiaoli and her family decided to buy a boat because they wanted the village to have abundant fishing resources and be able to "rely on the sea to eat".

At that time, Liu Xiaoli and the fishing boats around her bought "Caitan" in order to increase their fishing yield. On the screen of the explorer, the big fish are circles, the small fish are triangles, and the dense points are schools of fish. This way, no matter where the fish are, they can be caught in one go.

She found that some fishermen wanted to catch more small fish and changed the standard fishing net to a small fishing net with only one or two centimeters of mesh; Even if very small juvenile fish are caught on the ship, they will not be released. These small fish cannot be eaten when they come ashore, so the factory is notified to take them away and make feed, processed products, etc. to feed cows and sheep. Some are directly discarded on the dock.

Some fish were discarded on the ground. Photographed by Feng Rui

Many small fish in the catch are made into feed. Photographed by Feng Rui

"The speed of natural reproduction cannot keep up with the speed of fishermen catching fish," said Zhang Peng. In the huge fishing volume, the available yield is decreasing.

According to the China Fisheries Yearbook, the domestic nearshore fishing volume in 1990 was 5.944 million tons, which had increased to 12.0346 million tons in 1999, exceeding the annual fishing capacity limit of 8 million tons, of which 30% were juvenile fish used as feed. Research has shown that fishing before fish mature can make the species smaller, leading to a vicious cycle where fishermen's mesh becomes smaller in order to catch more fish.

According to the China Marine Development Report, there were only 180 species of organisms remaining in the Bohai and Yellow Seas around 2000, a 40% decrease from the earliest recorded 300 species. Therefore, in 1995, the Yellow and Bohai Seas began implementing a summer fishing ban, which increased from the initial 2-3 months to 4 months. During the fishing ban, the fishery department will release various types of fish fry in the nearshore waters.

However, Zhang Peng believes, "Currently, offshore resources are not as optimistic."

Liu Xiaoli mentioned that taking the small mackerel as an example, it used to be common for a boat to catch more than 10000 pounds, at least 7000 or 8000 pounds, but now it's more than 4000 or 5000 pounds caught in one trip. She remembers driving in the sea one year, and a car pulled up to more than 3000 Spanish mackerels at most. "For so many years, it's just one time," she said. These days, a car can pull up to three or four Spanish mackerels at most, "which has been cut down 1000 times."

"The variety of fish is also decreasing, and many fish are gone, such as the Yangtze River swordfish, and there are some fish that I can't call." Liu Xiaoli added that at the dock, fish prices are "on the market": fishing boats and fish vendors will negotiate a unified price based on the market situation, and the prices offered by each company will fluctuate slightly according to the size and appearance of the fish. Rare things are precious, and if the production is small, the market will naturally rise.

Big fish are easy to sell for a good price. Photographed by Feng Rui

"But high fish prices don't necessarily mean you can earn more money because there is no quantity," Liu Xiaoli said. Even for a small fish that costs one cent per kilogram, the difference in money earned between 50000 to 60000 kilograms and 10000 to 20000 kilograms is significant.

Now, Zhang Peng and Wu Yujie point out the helplessness of fishermen: on one hand, the decline in production has made some fish scarce, but fishermen need to control their prices within a reasonable range; On the other hand, due to the scarcity of "good goods", some fish cannot be sold out, and fishermen have to let refrigerated trucks collect them at a low price. "Unification is only for two pieces, we can't leave the goods at the port, they will stink the next day," said Zhang Peng.

"Going on a trip may even result in losses."

At 12 noon, Liu Xiaoli, who had just returned home from the dock, had a salty smell of fish on her coat. "Many people who get closer to me will dislike the smell," Liu Xiaoli joked. "I would say that it's clearly the smell of money."

Once, Chuwang Village became a "billion yuan village" in Yantai City through fishing production, and the village was filled with two-story small buildings. Liu Xiaoli remembers that during its heyday, the gross income from fishing could reach five to six hundred thousand yuan.

"The income is not low now, but it is very unstable. It depends on the weather to eat," Liu Xiaoli said. In recent years, the minimum gross income during the fishing season has been over 200000 yuan.

Liu Xiaoli and her husband used their savings to gradually switch from the earliest small wooden boat to a small steel shell boat. Five years ago, they finally bought the long-awaited "big steel shell". "For over 20 years, I have been striving for it now."

But she calculated the expenses for "keeping the boat" and sighed.

Liu Xiaoli said that the cost of a large ship alone is about 4 million yuan, and it needs to be regularly sent to the shipyard for maintenance and repair. On the big ship, not only do we need to send and pull nets, but we also need to preprocess the fish by decomposing and categorizing them. Therefore, besides her husband, we also need to hire 13 workers when going out to sea.

"The wages of workers increase year by year." Liu Xiaoli pointed out that the captain's salary is 90000 yuan, and the chief engineer and captain's assistant are around 80000 yuan. In three and a half months, she had to pay nearly 900000 yuan in wages.

She mentioned that the oil cost for ships going to sea has now risen to nearly 6000 yuan per ton. By this calculation, we need to purchase 2 million yuan worth of goods this year in order to break even. Spread it out evenly, we have to pull 20000 yuan worth of goods every night. In recent years, when the market was not good, fish could only be sold for over 10000 yuan per night, and it was also common to sell them for thousands of yuan.

"There is too little to catch in the sea, but the cost of going out to sea is skyrocketing." Zhang Peng remembers that each fishing boat used to have fuel subsidies, which were distributed based on the boat's horsepower and mileage. The more they ran, the higher the amount they received. In 2009, he saw a small boat receiving at least 100000 yuan in annual subsidies, and some large boats could receive 600000 yuan. But thereafter, fuel subsidies gradually decreased until they were completely abolished last year.

"Last year, the fishing boats at the port went out to sea, and Chengdu was losing money," he said.

Before 2018, Liu Xiaoli would go to Weihai Shidao, the largest dock in the north, with her husband around the 15th day of the first lunar month, just after the Chinese New Year, and continue to sail until the fishing ban period before returning to Yantai.

In winter, on days with waves, the seawater hits the deck and cannot be removed, forming thick ice that cannot be shoveled off with an iron shovel. The fastest time to go out to sea is 12 hours, and the longest is 30 hours. Three to four months of work can earn Liu Xiaoli and her wife a gross profit of 100000 yuan, and provide subsidies for their two children to go to school in another city.

"If we go on a trip now, we might even lose money. We'll just work for the second half of the year for three and a half months," Liu Xiaoli said, as more and more fishing boats around us are cutting back on their sailing time. On days when she doesn't go out to sea, many people go to work part-time. She plants dates and figs in the village and sells them at a stall when they are ripe. But in the end, it's not as fast as fishing to earn money and earn more.

"Fishermen still cannot do without the sea, and only by going out can they have a source of livelihood," she emphasized.

Liu Xiaoli sells figs to earn extra money. Photographed by Feng Rui

Liu Xiaoli rode a tricycle to the dock. Photographed by Feng Rui

"There are only 4 left."

In 2011, Zhang Peng returned to his hometown after finishing his university studies in Beijing, coinciding with the large-scale demolition of Yantai Development Zone.

He recalled that at that time, the development zone was going to build chemical plants and transportation ports. Originally, there were 36 natural villages in the town, but later only about 3 were left. Among them, the two major fishing villages of Chuwang and Luyang, as well as Chuwang Fishing Port, were preserved. Many fishermen have been assigned resettlement housing in the urban area of the development zone, which is more than ten kilometers away from the coastline.

"Some people don't know what to do, don't have many skills, and can't withstand the time constraints of factories," Zhang Peng said. The village committees of these villages have established relationships with some fishermen at Chuwang Fishing Port, allowing them to rent houses locally for three to four months and continue to "live by the sea". However, more people have left the industry due to distance and difficulty in finding shipping spaces. "Many people went directly to the chemical factory to work and withdrew almost half of the ships."

Zhang Peng's father initially contracted for over 30 fishing boats, and the fishermen all came from the demolished villages. This year, Zhang Pengyan watched more than 20 fishermen forcibly scrap their fishing boats, and in the end, only 4 were left.

One of the remaining fishing boats of Zhang Peng's family. Photographed by Feng Rui

Zhang Peng is greeting his contracted fishing boat. Photographed by Feng Rui

He smiled wryly, saying that demolition was "definitely suitable" for rural villagers, but "not cost-effective" for families who contract boats, with operating profits shrinking to one tenth of before the demolition. "A boat can generate at least 100 yuan in profit per day, while 20 boats are all worth 2000 yuan, which is not an exaggeration."

When Niu Chunxia was young, she knitted spinning ropes for the fishing production team at the shipyard. She described that there were twice as many ships in the past as there are now, and in the early morning, ships lined up one after another on the coast, unable to be seen at a glance.

"Young people have gone out to look for jobs, and there are very few young people fishing," sighed Niu Chunxia, who is almost the youngest generation of fishermen aged 45 or 46.

When Zhang Peng graduated from high school, he went out to sea once on his father's fishing boat. At that time, there was no automatic anchor windlass on the fishing boat. Under the scorching sun in June, he and two fishermen were pulling the fishing net with their hands, pulling it up bit by bit, and each move was several hundred meters. "After that, I never wanted to go out to sea again," Zhang Peng said. After graduation, he still liked the free and lazy life by the sea, so he chose to return to the fishing port. However, more descendants of fishing villages will go to work or start businesses, and they will be further away from the sea.

Wu Yujie remembers that when his father found out he wanted to become a seafood dealer, he told his relatives, "Take good care of a graduate student and become a fish dealer." Liu Xiaoli's daughter told her mother, "I want to stay in the big city and give my descendants a better life."

Currently, according to Zhang Peng, there are approximately 150 ships at Chuwang Fishing Port.

Liu Xiaoli originally planned to work until the age of 55. The news of nuclear wastewater being discharged into the sea has made her even more uncertain about the future.

"How long can we continue? We need to see the environment in the sea." She and Niu Chunxia heard that there may be high-speed rail stations and container terminals built here in the future. "I don't know how long the two fishing villages can last," Niu Chunxia complained. Living in the village, she can't burn the radiators in winter and it's inconvenient to go out and use the restroom. But when it comes to moving, she quickly waved her hand and said, "No, no, I can't see the sea. It's really uncomfortable."

Liu Xiaoli gazed at the chemical factory behind the mountain. Photographed by Feng Rui

18000 kilometers of coastline

Fishery economist Lejia Hua started his career in fisheries research after returning to China in 2007.

At this point, during his research, he found that the decline in resources for nearshore fishing and the reduction of ships for production have become common phenomena.

"No one can guarantee how much can be caught today. There are so many boats in the sea, and everyone is fishing. If the fishing intensity is not high, how can we make money?" Lejia Hua admitted that there are many contradictions in the implementation of fishery protection measures. Considering factors such as ocean pollution and climate change, the nearshore fishery resources can no longer return to the level of the late 1990s.

At the same time, he saw stricter regulation of the fishing industry. In addition to the extension of fishing bans and restrictions on the number and size of fishing nets, some regions in China have started piloting quota fishing in recent years. Based on the maximum allowable catch of various fishery resources, the local economic level, fishing capacity, etc. are evaluated to limit the number of fishermen catching various types of fish.

According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the domestic nearshore fishing yield has been reduced to within 10 million tons per year in 2022. "The production along the coast and nearshore will gradually decrease, and it will not exceed 10 million tons in the coming years," predicts Lejiahua. In the domestic production of marine products in 2022, marine fishing only accounted for 19.3%. Correspondingly, the number of fishing boats decreased from 1.0656 million in 2010 to 511000 in 2022.

However, "the transformation of fishermen to other industries is facing some difficulties," said Wang Songzi, who works for the non-profit organization Smart Fishing in the fishing industry. She has conducted surveys in over 30 fishing villages. "Most fishermen are old and have a relatively low level of education." She found that it is difficult for fishermen to transfer their fishing skills to other aquatic jobs such as aquaculture. Inland aquaculture requires technology, and the investment in deep-water net cages for deep-sea aquaculture is too high, making it difficult for individual fishermen to participate.

Lejiahua has seen that some retired fishermen have gone to work in the service and aquaculture industry, and in a few years, they have returned to the sea. Most people still prefer careers related to the sea. He and Wang Songzi both believe that lightweight leisure fishing, aquatic product processing and circulation, and other related industries will become the future direction for many retired fishermen to switch careers.

"But nearshore fishing will not die out," laughed Lejiahua. With over 5 million traditional fishermen still living along the 18000 kilometer coastline, although local young people are withdrawing from fishing, the economic level and relatively high income of coastal communities are attracting more migrants to fill the gap.

Fishermen work hard, but their income is not low. Photographed by Feng Rui

Zhang Peng often bends down and has injuries to his waist. Photographed by Feng Rui

Wang Songzi hopes that as fishing becomes more standardized, fishery resources will slowly recover, and a new balance between fishermen and the sea will be reached, traditional fisheries will be revitalized.

Wang Songzi stated that in the uncertain future, fishermen should be guided to actively seek new opportunities and build a more sustainable fishing community.

At the end of August, Zhang Peng and his friends began making simple meals to serve in the newly built university town nearby. Wu Yujie collaborates with the aquatic processing plant in the village. The skin shrimp caught by fishermen, after being processed and packaged by the villagers, will soon be sent to supermarkets and restaurants across the country.

At 7 o'clock at night, Zhang Peng, who returned from the dock, finally had dinner with his family. He bought and sold a few leftover yellow croakers, and paired them with a dozen beers. "This is the daily routine of the seaside people, it's nothing, that's it," he said

Day after day, every link in the vast fishing chain is busy making a living, maintaining a stable supply of seafood.