A New Industry- Recreational Fisheries in China

Since the 1990s, recreational fisheries in China have developed rapidly and many recreational fishery sites, aquaculture farms, and marine recreational fisheries have developed, and ornamental fishes and public aquaria have become popular. There are many fishery festivals, such as crab festivals, fishing festivals, fishermen festivals, fish food festivals, and fish decoration festivals. By 2009, the value of recreational fisheries in China was more than 500 million yuan ($80,000,000 US), employing nearly 2 million direct and indirect employees. Responsible recreational fisheries in China require fully considering socioeconomic and environmental impacts and minimizing negative impacts of fisheries and fishery products as well as climate change, responsible tourism, and developing a modern fishery. We discuss several areas of a responsible Chinese recreational fishery: self-discipline, cultural respect and equality, low carbon/energy consumption, and conservation and the responsibilities of the business and leisure fishing communities. We conclude that the Chinese public should raise its awareness of its responsibilities, recreational fishing businesses and communities should clarify their obligations, fishing industry associations should actively organize and promote responsible recreational fisheries, government fisheries agencies should recommend policies for responsible recreational fisheries, and the fisheries economic and management community should strengthen international cooperation in responsible recreational fisheries research.