Decision of the Standing Committee of Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress on Several Issues Concerning the Promotion and Guarantee of Fishing Prohibition in the Yangtze River Basin

(February 26, 2021)

With a view to doing well the fishing prohibition and the relevant work in the Yangtze River basin of this Municipality, strengthening the ecology and environment protection and restoration, implementing the grand protection of the Yangtze River, and ensuring the ecological safety, the following Decision is hereby made in accordance with the provisions of the Yangtze River Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China, the Fisheries Law of the People’s Republic of China and other relevant laws and administrative rules:

I.This Municipality shall, in an all-round way, carryout and implement the provisions of the State on strengthening the protection of aquatic life in the Yangtze River and doing well the relevant work on fishing prohibition in the Yangtze River, take the fishing prohibition in the Yangtze River as an important task at present and for a future period, and ensure that the fishing prohibition and the relevant work achieve the actual effect.

II. The fishing prohibition area in this Decision means the area where fishing is prohibited in the Yangtze River basin and the key waters defined by the State and this Municipality.

The period of fishing prohibition shall be executed according to the relevant provisions of the State and this Municipality.

III. The Municipal People’s Government shall include the fishing prohibition work into the national economic and social development plan, establish a major matter coordination mechanism for the fishing prohibition, listen to the report on the fishing prohibition work regularly, study and solve the key and difficult problems, and include the fishing prohibition work into the performance evaluation and objective and task assessment system.

The relevant district people’s governments shall implement their responsibility within their own jurisdiction, perfect the long-term supervision mechanism, legally crack down on such acts as illegal fishing, establish patrol teams for fishing administration, and do well the fishing prohibition and relevant guarantee work.

The municipal department of agriculture and rural affairs shall be responsible for and coordinate the fishing prohibition work. The departments of development & reform, economy and informatization, commerce, public security, civil affairs, judicial administration, finance, human resources and social security, planning and resources, transportation, water affairs (ocean), culture and tourism, market regulation, forestry, urban management and law enforcement, and Shanghai Coast Guard Bureau, Shanghai Maritime Safety Administration, Shanghai Branch of Yangtze River Shipping Public Security Bureau, and other agencies in Shanghai directly under the Central People’s Government shall, according to their respective functions and duties, ensure the relevant work on fishing prohibition is well done.

IV. This Municipality shall give play to the advantages of the Integrated Online Administration and urban digitization and grid management, accelerate the realization of information and data sharing among departments, and establish and prefect a mechanism of timely discovery of, response to and handling of the illegal acts such as illegal fishing.

The municipal departments of agriculture and rural affairs, public security, transportation, market regulation, and water affairs (ocean) and the relevant district people’s governments shall strengthen the integration of law enforcement forces and equipment and facility resources, and explore the promotion of water-land synchronized action and multi-departments joint, synchronized and cooperated law enforcement.

Relying on the law enforcement advantages of Shanghai Coast Guard Bureau, Shanghai Maritime Safety Administration, Shanghai Branch of Yangtze River Shipping Public Security Bureau and other agencies stationed in Shanghai directly under the Central People’s Government, this Municipality shall establish a synchronized law enforcement mechanism featuring the interaction between agencies directly under the Central People’s Government and government departments of this Municipality, intensify the dynamics of legal investigation and punishment on such acts as illegal fishing, and raise the efficiency of law enforcement.

The relevant municipal departments shall strengthen the guidance for relevant district/town/township people’s governments on the implementation of fishing prohibition with the emphasis laid on the intensifying of the dynamics on the inspection, control and legal investigation and punishment on the Three-No Ships on waters along rivers and seas.

The municipal department of agriculture and rural affairs shall formulate administrative systems to strengthen the administration of angling in fishing-prohibited areas.

V. The relevant municipal and district departments shall investigate and punish illegal acts according to law and the following division of functions and duties:

1. The department of agriculture and rural affairs shall investigate and punish according to law the acts of illegal fishing and utilizing angling or utilizing it in a disguised manner for fishing;

2. The department of maritime safety shall handle according to law the Three-No ships navigating or berthing in a fishing-prohibited area; if such ships have an act involving fishing, the department of agriculture and rural affairs shall investigate and handle them according to law;

3. Where a ship carrying fishing tools navigates or berths in a fishing-prohibited area, the departments of agriculture and rural affairs, coast guard, maritime safety, public security, transportation, and forestry may board it for inspection; if they find an illegal act involving fishing, the department of agriculture and rural affairs shall investigate and handle it according to law;

4. Where anyone enters a fishing-prohibited area while carrying a device or apparatus of electricity, poisons, explosives, or other prohibited fishing gear, the department of agriculture and rural affairs shall investigate and handle the case according to law, or the departments of public security, coast guard, transportation, water affairs (ocean), and forestry shall transfer the case to the department of agriculture and rural affairs after legally conducting the investigation and evidence collection; if the case is serious, it shall be transferred to the public security department for legal investigation and handling;

5. Where anyone purchases, transports, processes, sells or utilizes the illegal fishing catch, or makes a false publicity in the name of the Yangtze River’s fishing catch, the departments of agriculture and rural affairs, transportation, and market regulation shall investigate and handle the case according to law and their respective functions and duties; and

6. Other illegal acts that destroy the fishing prohibition work shall be handled according to the relevant provisions of the State and this Municipality.

VI. This Municipality shall legally and severely punish the illegal and criminal acts that destroy the fishing prohibition work. The people’s court, the people’s procuratorate, the public security organ, the coast guard organ and the relevant administrative law enforcement departments shall define the procedures and time limit of case transfer, perform their functions and duties according to law, divide but cooperate in the work, and contact each other effectively, so as to ensure that the cases are transferred, investigated, prosecuted, and tried and the verdicts are implemented according to law.

VII. The relevant municipal departments and the relevant district people’s governments shall, according to the actual circumstances of the work and the administrative needs, accelerate the building of law enforcement ships/boats, specialized wharves and relatively centralized places for ship detention and disassembling.

The municipal and relevant district departments of agriculture and rural affairs, public security, and market regulation shall enhance the building of law enforcement teams and their capability, and intensify the dynamics on the administrative law enforcement and case investigation and handling.

The municipal and relevant district departments of development & reform, economy and informatization, commerce, finance, planning and resources, and transportation shall take measures to guarantee the relevant necessary needs that are involved in the law enforcement supervision such as the construction of wharves, equipment, facilities and informatization.

VIII. News media of all kinds shall publicize laws, rules and policies on the fishing prohibition, launch public service advertisements for the fishing prohibition, and create an atmosphere of voluntary fishing prohibition and ecology protection in the society. The public shall be encouraged to actively participate in voluntary service activities relevant to the fishing prohibition and the withdrawal from fishing.

Units and individuals shall enhance their awareness of the protection of aquatic life, and strictly implement various provisions on the protection of aquatic lives in the Yangtze River. It is imperative to give play to the role of social supervision by establishing a system of rewarding those who report illegal acts such as the destruction of fishing prohibition.

Relevant research institutions shall be supported to carry out according to laws and rules scientific and technological research in aquatic ecology and the monitoring over the index of biotic integrity, publish monitoring reports, conduct assessment of the effect of fishing prohibition in the Yangtze River basin, and provide scientific support for the formulation and perfection of relevant policies.

IX. This Municipality shall continuously promote the guarantee of the resettlement of fishermen who quit fishing.

The municipal department of human resources and social security and relevant district people’s governments shall strengthen the employment guidance and occupational skill training for fishermen who quit fishing, and give priority to arranging such fishermen with difficulty in employment to engage in public welfare work; the municipal and district civil affairs departments shall do well the basic living guarantee work for fishermen who quit fishing and have difficulty in living.

The finance departments at all levels of this Municipality shall intensify the dynamics on the fund investment, integrate the relevant funds in an overall manner, and support the fund needs of fishermen who quit fishing for the employment resettlement and social security.

X. This Municipality shall, on the basis of implementing the national strategy of an integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, explore such acts as the cross-provincial synchronized supervision, cooperated legislation and joint law enforcement in the Yangtze River basin.

This Municipality shall establish and perfect a long-term closed loop regulation mechanism for the illegal fishing featuring the cooperation with Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang Province and Anhui Province, explore the establishment of an information sharing platform for ship registration covering the three provinces and this Municipality, a fishing vessel dynamic regulation platform, and a regulation platform for aquatic products circulation tracing, and a platform for law enforcement information sharing, and jointly crack down on the illegal and criminal acts that destroy the fishing prohibition work.

This Municipality shall, based on the ministry and provincial coordination mechanism for the fishing prohibition administration in the Yangtze Estuary, and jointly with Jiangsu Province and Zhejiang Province, promote in coordination the rectification of illegal fishing in the waters of the Yangtze Estuary, and strengthen the administration of the Yangtze Estuary fishing prohibition administrative area.

XI. The Relevant Districts mentioned in this Decision refer to Pudong New Area, Chongming District, Baoshan District, Fengxian District, Jinshan District, and other districts that the waters for fishing prohibition involves.

The Three-No Ships mentioned in this Decision refer to the ships/boats/rafts with no name or number, no ship/boat/raft certificate and no port of registry.

This Decision shall be effective as of April 1, 2021.