One of prioritised marine environmental problems in the Yellow Sea is over-fishing, which has been seriously affected the health of the Yellow Sea ecosystem. The total fish catch in the Yellow Sea occupied 8.85% of the global total in 1986, and rapidly rose to 19.95% in 2004.
In order to address the over-fishing problem, the participating countries in the UNDP/GEF Yellow Sea project have reached an agreement to reduce 25-30% of fishing efforts in 2020, aiming at the fishery stock would be recovered then. However, following the reduction of fishing boats, there would be reduction on catching seafood at least more than 1 million tons. To compensate the lack of millions seafood to the increased population, the reduced part should be recovered by mariculture productions.
If the relevant management decision is to produce more seafood from mariculture, the pollution discharge from mariculture activities, in particular nutrient discharge would become serious problem in marine ecosystem. The YSLME project introduced Integrated Multi-trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) as the tool to increase production and to reduce pollutants discharge to the marine environment. Following a number of demonstration projects, the management actions suggested by the Strategic Action Programme (SAP) for the Yellow Sea have been proved useful and effective.
This presentation will introduce the transboundary environmental problems, the relevant concept designs, and initial results from demonstration activities.