HAIKOU, July 30. /TASS/. The Hainan authorities this year plan to promote recreational and amateur fishing, which should give a boost to the intensive development of the entire regional industry for the extraction of aquatic biological resources, inspector of the regional department for agriculture Chen Liang said at a press conference.
“For a long time, the fishing industry in our province has developed extensively: the increase in the corresponding share of the gross regional product was seen due to the quantitative factor, due to the increase in the volume of catches and the cultivation of more and more fish,” he said. “However, this led to the depletion of resources and environmental pollution along the coastline. <...> Recreational and amateur fishing is an important area, thanks to which the transformation of the entire industry will take place, and the income of fishermen will increase. "
According to the official, traditional fishing on Hainan has already exhausted its possibilities, therefore it is necessary to stimulate its development at the expense of the resources of the domestic and inbound tourism industry. "This direction has great potential, <...> at the same time an international consumption zone will be set up on the island. This will bring more stability to Hainan's free trade port port," stressed the official.
He specified that the government intends to draft new measures for the accelerated development of recreational fishing. "We will ensure balanced growth, as well as security, remove obstacles to development, fill in the lack of strategic support," the inspector concluded.
According to official statistics, Hainan companies supplied about 1.72 million tonnes of fish to the market in 2019, by 1.9% less than in the previous 12 months. However, this has so far insignificantly affected the growth of the agricultural sector, which includes forestry and fisheries. Its added value over the corresponding period increased by 2.7%, amounting to 111.9 billion yuan (about $ 15.9 billion).