Environmental pollution in China caused 3.6 billion yuan of losses to the country's fishery industry in 2006.

A report jointly released by the Ministry of Agriculture and the State Environmental Protection Administration on Wednesday said China recorded last year 1,463 water pollution cases which contaminated 94,000 hectares of water.

According to the report, economic losses to inland fishery resources came to 855 million yuan, while the losses to ocean fishery resources were 2.7 billion yuan.

China's fishery monitoring networks examined 96 key fishing locations in the Bohai, Yellow Sea and South China sea as well as Heilongjiang, Yellow and Yangtze rivers covering a combined water surface of 20.58 million hectares.

The major substances affecting the quality of water at fishing zones were nitrogen, phosphorus, petroleum and capper, says the report.