China's fisheries output to top $274b

BEIJING - China's fisheries output will top 1.73 trillion yuan ($273.89 billion ) this year, up 15 percent from 2011, a senior fishery official said on Sunday.

Fishermen will harvest 59.06 million tonnes this year, up 5.4 percent year on year, said Zhao Xingwu, head of the Bureau of Fisheries in the Ministry of Agriculture.

He was speaking at a national fisheries work meeting in Beijing.

Aquaculture will yield 43.05 million tonnes this year, up 7 percent year on year and domestic fishing will provide 14.83 million tonnes, almost the same as 2011. Finally, distant fishing will bring in 1.18 million tonnes, up 2.8 percent year on year, Zhao said.

Annual income for fishermen will average at 11,256 yuan per capita in 2012, up 12.4 percent year on year, Zhao said.

Niu Dun, vice minister of agriculture, said the government has been mapping out policies to support fisheries, including 8.01 billion yuan of investment this year to boost fishery infrastructure, Niu said.

This year fishermen have received 1.35 billion yuan in compensation for a number of oil spills that occurred in north China's Bohai Bay from June 2011. This is a historic breakthrough to explore the compensation mechanism on fisheries resources, Niu said.

Oil spills in the Penglai 19-3 oilfield in Bohai Bay have polluted over 6,200 square kilometers of water since June 2011, an area about nine times the size of Singapore. They have hit the aquatic farming industries of Liaoning and Hebei provinces.