'Grave situation' threatens coastal areas

BEIJING - China's fragile coastal ecosystems are severely threatened by human activities, and pollution and environmental degradation have created a "grave situation", according to a report released by the State Oceanic Administration.

Since the 1990s, more than 20,000 hectares of wetland in China have disappeared every year on average, according to the 2011 China Ocean Development Report, released on April 29 by the administration's China Institute for Marine Affairs.

Nearly 57 percent of the country's intertidal wetland has disappeared, and the wetlands of the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea have lost 30 to 90 percent of their natural functions, it said.