Longtime fisher now reef protector

Three days a week, reef protector Fu Mingyou, 42, travels to Xishazhou Island with three other workers after sailing 4 nautical miles from Zhaoshu Island in Hainan province. There, they collect garbage brought in by the tides, mainly plastic bags and glass bottles, in the surrounding waters.

Fu is a former fisherman from the port area of Tanmen in the city of Qionghai on eastern Hainan Island.

He has been working as a reef protector since the government in Sansha, China's southernmost city, started to implement the island chief system in the Qilianyu Islands in September.