Many of the fish on our plates come from China...and why it is important
For the next in our series of episodes about the demise of the oceans and overfishing we leave the North Sea, and we take a look in the direction of Asia and China. China is important: there are 22% of all the people on our planet. A...nd they are eating strange things. There is nothing wrong with that: tastes differ. It is a problem if those, for us bizarre culinary excesses, make animals go into extinction and, worse still, destroy entire ecosystems. A process in which they fully concentrate. Read this and shudder.
The future of the oceans is largely in the hands of the Chinese. Already two-thirds of all that is taken from the sea is consumed by Asians. In the whole world, over the past 30 years, we consume twice as many fish and seafood products, consumption in China increased fivefold. Approximately 400 million Chinese live in the vicinity of the coast. Their prosperity is increased dramatically in recent years, something that is repeated in their fish consumption. In 1980, at the average Chinese ate 5 kilograms of fish per year. In 2000, it was already 25 kg per Chinese.
In 2007, Chinese fishermen were officially taking 15 million tons of fish from the sea. That’s legal fish, add to that 35% illegally caught fish. Just to put in perspective: the Belgians fished in 2008, some 17000 tons.
A (not so) simple calculation
In total, according to the food safety agency of the United Nations approximately 90 million tons was taken from the sea. Plus 35% illegally caught fish, which makes approximately 120 million tons. The total biomass of edible products in the sea is between 800 million tons (counting to what is now seen in the world as common and acceptable to eat) and 2 billion tons of (for example, if we are all going to eat jellyfish aswell).
Collapsed
In 2003, the fishing of 29% of all species had collapsed. Collapsed, meaning that 90% of the species has disappeared and can no longer reproduce enough. In 1980, it was only 13.5%. Globalization and the increased purchasing power, for example in Asia, but here also, ensured that there are now nearly 8,000 species being fished upon. Only 2000 species more than 15 years ago.
Juveniles
Predict when it will end seems to be a breeze: all you need to account for is the reproduction rate of marine animals. But this differs greatly from species to species. How many eggs they have, when they reach sexual maturity. For some fish that’s only after 15 years or more.
We are, regarding the popular sea fish such as cod on the West-European plate, in that stage: fishermen catch fish who have not yet had the chance to reproduce. 70% of the "fresh" cod fillets on your plate are of fish less than two years old and never had the chance to make little ones.
And there is more. Ecosystems are complex. For example, we know that if we overfish a certain kind, 33% of the non-endorsed fish in that environment also disappears.
Full gas against the wall
We are there fore, despite the fact that the wall where we are about to crash into is getting nearer, we are stepping on the gas even more. America and New Zealand are the only ones where steps have been taken, the rest of the world continues with irresponsible fishing.
That is not only an ecological tragedy; it is also an economic and social nightmare. Worldwide 500 million people, directly or indirectly, live of the fishing industry. There are studies showing that the gradual collapse of fish stocks-fewer and fewer fish, which is increasingly only purchased by rich people, will lead to the death of a billion people.War at sea
The expansionism of the Chinese fishing leads to ever more international incidents. Last year there were already conflicts at sea, the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia. There are two phenomena: Chinese fishermen who are working illegally within the waters of other countries, and the harassment and hounding of fishermen competing in international waters. That is becoming aggressive, and there have been cases where fishing boats sank after being rammed .
Wherever there’s fish, there’s Chinese people
The reason for those incidents: the Chinese have run out of fish in their own waters. The East China Sea and the Yellow Sea have been exhausted. Rest close to home, the South China Sea. Since the 1960s, for example, 249 species disappeared from the Beibu Gulf where also the Vietnamese people are fishing.
So China has to go fish elsewhere. With the neighbours, but in fact just about everywhere. In the 1980s the Chinese created their DWF-(distant water fishing fleet), which in the meantime counts 2,000 ships. They are most active in the 35 most important fishing zones in the world and the most destructive force on the planet. Their turnover-official, gray and black and is 31.5 billion euro.
Good idea, poor results
In 1998, the Chinese had reduced the fish stock in their own waters to 16.7% of what it was in 1962. In the meantime, Peking took up the moratoria. In almost all the coastal regions, during the summer months, it is not allowed to fish. They also made work of restructuring plans for coastal fishermen to operate in fish farming. And, it made a number of marine reserves.
Marine reserves are a good idea. If you stop fishing there, the fish stock is rising dramatically and quickly: on average with 29%. But not in China. For two reasons. The first is that the ban is violated. It is not simple. The coastline of China is 14.500 kilometers, the patrol area, nearly a million square kilometers. In addition, there is not a single federal coast guard in China, and the climate varies from sub-tropical climate to Arctic.
Pollution is the rule, not the exception
The second reason why it’s not working: the pollution from rivers that enter the Chinese seas. 
In China live 1.3 billion people, as said before 22% of the world's population. But those 22% can only fall back on 8% of the world's potential drinking water. The word potential is important.
Three quarters of the rivers that flow through or by 98 cities of millions (where 26% Chinese live in 98 cities) are so heavily polluted that fishing isn’t possible, let alone that they are fit for drinking. Half of that polluted water is so bad, that it’s" unfit for human contact”.
The fact that the waste water and sewers of one on four Chinese run into the rivers is one thing, the rest does the industry. In 2007, Six in ten Chinese companies were guilty of illegal dumping of waste in rivers, it emerged from a survey by the Chinese Government. Each year 20 000 tons of heavy metals, and substances that are carcinogenic are dumped in those rivers even as 800 tons of cyanide which is used in mines on metal ores. In the end, it all ends in the sea.
Dead zones & red tides
The areas where the Yellow River and the Yangtze lead into the sea has been declared by the United Nations as the official "dead zones", which means that there is nothing living there anymore. With each spring in the East China Sea, the famous red tides or harmful algae blooms (HAB's) appear : huge, toxic algae blooms change the sea in a filthy soapy foam. There were 82 in 2005 alone, an area as large as Belgium.
China on your plate, you just don't know it
The Yangtze-Delta, three times bigger than Belgium, with 80 million inhabitants, of whom 19 million in Shanghai, is the largest source of marine pollution in the world. Far away from here, why would you care? Here it is: you eat more fish, shrimps and seafood caught, farmed or processed by Chinese than (the few) from the North Sea. In addition to the 15 million tons of fish they catch, the Chinese breed 34 million tons of giant shrimp and such, which is about 70% of the global total.
The majority of that Chinese stuff, you cannot recognize by the packaging. That is usually done somewhere between China and the freezer of your warehouse. The health of those grown fish, crustaceans or shellfish, is cause for concern. Three out of four of China's Lakes are contaminated with toxic algae. Every three days (you read it correctly) a serious "industrial accident"is happening in the country in which streams are contaminated with arsenic, nitrobenzene or cyanide.
Doubled
That is the water in which your giant shrimp, scampi's, eel, tilapia and much more is bred. China is now the largest exporter of large shrimps, which used to be Thailand, but the Chinese doubled their production since 2005.
Denied
In 2008, 2.797 large shipments of products of animal origin from China arrived in the Netherlands, especially in the port of Rotterdam. In slightly more than half of the cases with fish, shrimp, and shellfish. 22 Parties were rejected by the food and goods authority, that the quality of the imported goods checks. In the whole of the EU, there were 117 cases of rejected and re-dispatched of the 700 000 tons of shrimp. That is not so bad, we thought.
Antibiotics à gogo
Were it not that, we talked to Don Kraemer, deputy director at the FDA's Office of food safety, the United States food inspection,. "We have our values," says Kraemer. "Take antibiotics. The trigger volumes which we discover are low, typically less than the standards, usually between 1 and 30 parts per billion. "
In 1993, after the Chinese were beginning to invest heavily in the culture of breeding shrimp, the harvest failed due to a bacterial infection. The Chinese had sworn no longer to allow this to happen. Today still antibiotics are allowd, as much as other controversial additives. Please read: despite the fact that the EU inspects 20% of all imports of Chinese fish and shrimp, the reality is that there is no Chinese fish and shrimp culture where no antibiotics are used.
Ciproxine
For example, broad spectrum antibiotics are very popular. Ciprofloxacin (you know that as Ciproxine) causes no cancer (that we know), but use of such a broad antibiotic in food makes is less effective as a medicine.
Malachite Green
Malachite Green is toxic and can cause cancer of the liver. Because it is cheap and easy to make, it is used in China against parasites in fish farming. Malachite Green is no longer officially allowed in China since 2002. The Americans found it last year in crab, eel, tiger prawns, and other Chinese fish. "rats that we fed with Malachite Green 100 to 600 parts per billion over a period of two years got cancer', tells Kraemer. "Well, we have found that 91% of the eel from China has Malachite Green in it. Some samples were 3.239 parts per billion. Well!. "
Carcinogenic
Methyl Violet 10B (hexamethyl pararosaniline chloride) is another Chinese favorite, as nitrofurans and chloramphenicol. All they are all consistent present in Chinese fish, shellfish and crustaceans in accordance with the Americans. And it seems a little crazy to think that there is a chance that the Chinese would breed them without it specially for us Europeans.
The bank says Yes
The Chinese continue to use this rubbish because it’s easy and necessary ', considers Kraemer. "Aquatic species are very susceptible to diseases, especially with the pollution problems. Clean water is something that no longer exists in China. " The same conclusion had Rabobank in 2005 in a report in which the Bank asked the question whether it is justified to provide loans to Chinese fish farms. The conclusion of the bank: give the loan, after all, the Chinese Government allows many of these products.
Good powder
The fish fields of China have even become testing grounds for new resources. For example, in 2005 inspectors of the European Union, traced a new generation of chloramphenicol, to an eel farm in the province of Fujian. The managers of the farm claimed that they did not use antibiotics only "that new great powder that they have given us”. That new powder arrived with the appropriate stamps of the Chinese Government, which blamed an official for not doing his job properly.
"Most of the fish farmers in China are simple people", according to Kraemer. "They are very easy to manipulate. If someone comes along with something that solves their problems, they will not be in doubt. "
Drama
We spoke at an international conference for fish farmers in Sydney with Xie Shandi and Chai Yuandi who breed mainly eel. They told HLN Belgium that the ban on Malachite Green was a tragedy for them. "With Malachite Green one in ten of the fish died, without we are losing four out of ten on diseases."
"There is reason for concern"
"There is cause for concern", said also Michael Keyzer, Director of the Foundation world food supplies of the free University in Amsterdam. "Because the food chains in China are not strictly separated. Not all of the products can be followed from their origin to the end, such as in Europe. "
"The Chinese have the tendency to use many antibiotics and pesticides. There is an enormous amount injected on fruit, for example. The fish often contains heavy metals, from rivers. And the farmed fish is full of antibiotics, that they just throw in, "says Keyzer to our colleagues.
What’s to come
"The European market is not really open to the Chinese. Only when that time comes, in a few years, the Chinese exports of food products will really grow ", warns Zhao Xiaoyong, researcher at the agricultural economic Institute (LEI).
