Sun Xianli, 50-year-old fisherman from Rizhao, Shandong province

I became a fisherman when I was 19. At the time, there were a lot of fish in the ocean, but we only had a small wooden boat so we couldn't catch as many as we wanted. When I became more experienced, I bought a large boat, but the water wasn't clean anymore so there were fewer fish. Also, the government imposed quotas to protect the fish population.

In 2004, I gave up long-range fishing and started cultivating beds of scallops and mussels. At first, the profits were good, and I could make 3,000 yuan ($484) a year from every mu (0.07 hectare) of mussels and 10,000 yuan for scallops. I owned 1,600 mu in total, so I've lost a lot of money.

People streamed into the business, though, and the waters became even dirtier. In 2012, my mussel harvest was almost zero and I lost all the money I'd invested in the project.

In 2013, the local government helped me build artificial reefs in the waters I used to farm. Now, I see more fish in the water and can even see sea cucumbers crawling. It will be two years until I make a profit from the reefs, so I hope the government will help me bridge the gap.

I'm growing kelp as well. I sell some and use the rest to feed the marine life on my "sea ranch". We should encourage more people to grow kelp - if the fish have food, we have food.

Sun Xianli spoke with Peng Yining

(China Daily USA 05/05/2015 page6)