In the coming five years, China's aquatic output is projected to hit 46 million tons, with the greater portion - 65 percent of the total amount - contributed by aquatic breeding rather than offshore fishing, Yang Jian of the Ministry of Agriculture said.

Yang, director of the ministry's Fisheries Bureau, said the per capita annual income of fishermen will reach 6,000 yuan (US$722.8) by the year 2005.

Between 1995 and 2000, earnings by fishermen posted a yearly rise of 7.5 percent - a faster growth pace than other agricultural sectors, such as crop-growing, which saw a wretched 2 percent income growth last year, according to the bureau statistics.

The fisheries sector is set to progress faster in China in the years ahead, according to some experts.

They have also said that the population explosion, economic expansion and the depletion of terrestrial resources have prompted people to look to the sea, which covers 71 percent of the planet's surface, to support their existence and help them develop.

China has worked out a plan, in which the fisheries sector is expected to contribute more to improving people's nutrition levels and alleviating the pressure on grain production, according to sources with the State Development Planning Commission.

In the newly fashioned "Food Development Program for China in 2010," the commission said that by the end of the first decade of the century, the country's per capita aquatic product consumption will increase by 10 kilograms.

At present it stands at 32.4 kilograms, according to Ministry of Agriculture statistics.

But water contamination, overfishing and other pressures put on aquatic resources are blocking further growth of the fisheries industry, according to Qi Jingfa, vice-minister of Agriculture.

This accounts for why China's newly revised Fishery Law has stipulated that the country will strictly limit the amount of fish caught.

China is now the only country in the world where aquatic breeding output exceeds the offshore catch, according to Qi.

(China Daily 02/01/2001)