Chinese Distant-Water Fishing: A Global Breakthrough Not Just in "Quantity", but More in "Quality"

Beyond Catch Volumes: Building a High-Value Chain for Global Seafood Supply

Recently, the *2025 Assessment of the State of World Marine Fishery Resources* released by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations shows a mixed picture of global marine fishery resources. Currently, approximately 64.5% of marine fish stocks are under sustainable fishing, while 35.5% still face the risk of overfishing — and the proportion of overfished stocks is rising at an annual rate of about 1%.

Geographically, the northeastern Pacific and southwestern Pacific regions have achieved high sustainable fishing rates of 92.7% and 85% respectively, thanks to long-term investment and sound management frameworks. The Antarctic region has even realized 100% sustainable fishing of its biological stocks. In contrast, the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions are in a grim situation, with a sustainable fishing rate of only about 35%; regions such as the southeastern Pacific and central-eastern Atlantic also have rates below 50%.

Against this global backdrop, China’s distant-water fishing has demonstrated unique advantages. Since the first distant-water fishing fleet set sail from Mawei Port in Fujian Province 40 years ago, China’s distant-water fishing industry has developed rapidly. Today, it operates over 2,600 fishing vessels, covering waters of 40 countries as well as the high seas of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Both the fleet scale and output rank among the top in the world.

In terms of technology and equipment, China has built an integrated technology system covering fishing, processing, and equipment R&D. Independent R&D supports the entire process from fishing vessel design to fishery condition forecasting. The application of innovative technologies and equipment — such as high-performance Antarctic krill trawls and the "Haiying AI" smart fishery condition forecasting system for tuna — has driven the industry to shift from scale expansion to quality improvement.

In terms of systems and concepts, China adheres to the principles of win-win cooperation, safety and stability, and green and sustainable development. It has issued the Regulations on the Management of Distant-Water Fishing and released the white paper China’s Distant-Water Fishing Development, enhancing its compliance with international obligations and contributing Chinese solutions to the conservation of global fishery resources.

From the perspective of industrial layout, regions like Fujian and Shandong have promoted the integration of university research resources with enterprises, encouraging fishing equipment manufacturing to participate in international competition and helping China move toward becoming a strong equipment-manufacturing country. Regions such as Zhejiang and Liaoning have laid out integrated markets for fine processing, building comprehensive bases covering "research — fishing — processing — sales" to enhance product value and competitiveness.

With multi-dimensional advantages in technology, systems, and industrial layout, China’s distant-water fishing not only ensures the stable supply of domestic fishery products amid global fishery resource challenges but also injects vitality into the sustainable development of the world’s fishery industry.