10th Seafood Summit opened in Hong Kong by China’s Director General for Fisheries

In addition to this show of support from the central government, Dr. Leung, head of Hong Kong’s  Aquaculture, Fisheries and Conservation department also spoke.

Zhao said that China had been practicing Aquaculture since the 11th century BC, and that in 1980, when Deng Xiaoping launched China’s economic reform campaign, the government made a conscious decision to focus on building up aquaculture over wild-capture fisheries.  Under this policy, China produced 5.88 million tons of farmed fish and seafood products in 1988, and this has grown to 15.5 million tons in 2011.  Out of this 3.9 million tons is exported. China, according to the FAO, is the only country with a significant wild-capture fishery that produces an even greater quantity from aquaculture.

"We have no choice but to develop the seafood industry in a sustainable way, providing sufficient aquatic products for human beings while striking a balance among population, natural resources and environment," said Zhao. 

"China is willing to learn from the other countries’ new solutions to seafood development.  We are committed to making new and greater contributions to the sustainability of global seafood market through aquaculture and industrialization," said Zhao.

Other participants at the conference noted that other countries have used quota management to reduce overfishing.  China is not taking that path, as the structure of the industry with hundreds of thousands of fishermen and vessels, makes such an effort too unwieldy.  Instead, the Chinese government is reducing fishing pressure by introducing a licensing scheme to limit the number and power of fishing vessels;  to impose fishing bans and moratoriums, to reduce the overall level of harvests, and to provide incentives for fishermen to switch to other work.

How the Western model of sustainability might work or not work in China has been the overriding theme of the conference.  As one Chinese expert put it, China has been successfully farming tilapia for over 2000 years, and so they are not going to be told by outsiders how to make it sustainable, but instead will build on their own traditions.

In the west, the retail model using market incentives, with heavy outside financing from NGO’s,  has created strong retailer demand for sustainable seafood, most of which involves 3rd party certification by the MSC, GAA or other scheme.

At a press conference, High Liner CEO Henry Demone, Sea Web President Dawn Martin, and Sustainable Fisheries Partnership CEO Jim Cannon discussed how the Western Model might be applied.

First, all agreed that Asian societies had their own unique cultural approaches to fish and seafood, and that sustainability would have to be achieved in harmony with cultural values.

Jim Cannon described the process as ‘creating win-win’ solutions in individual fisheries, so that the economic or political incentives aligned to benefit all participants.  He did not see much difference between North America, Europe and China.  Certainly Europe has been as guilty of overfishing and disregarding sustainability a any society on the planet.

He said 'each culture places different values on different aspects of sustainability.  For example Japan values assured supply and legality, and it is harder to work on just environmental issues.  But in Germany, environmental issues are very important.   The key is to find the most important angle to create win wins.”

In China certainly people are beginning to think about environmental issues and sustainability issues and to make progress.

There is a very strong food security argument that is important to the Chinese leadership, and this may be a key entry point in taking action to preserve stocks, and manage aquaculture sustainably.   Fish protein is a hugely significant animal protein in the region, and security is an important piece of that.