By feeding the fish, farmers feed the people

Sun Xianli, 50-year-old fisherman from Rizhao, Shandong province

I became a fisherman when I was 19. At the time, there were a lot of fish in the ocean, but we only had a small wooden boat so we couldn't catch as many as we wanted. When I became more experienced, I bought a large boat, but the water wasn't clean anymore so there were fewer fish. Also, the government imposed quotas to protect the fish population.

In 2004, I gave up long-range fishing and started cultivating beds of scallops and mussels. At first, the profits were good, and I could make 3,000 yuan ($484) a year from every mu (0.07 hectare) of mussels and 10,000 yuan for scallops. I owned 1,600 mu in total, so I've lost a lot of money.

People streamed into the business, though, and the waters became even dirtier. In 2012, my mussel harvest was almost zero and I lost all the money I'd invested in the project.

In 2013, the local government helped me build artificial reefs in the waters I used to farm. Now I see more fish in the water and can even see sea cucumbers crawling. It will be two years until I make a profit from the reefs, so I hope the government will help me bridge the gap.

I'm growing kelp as well. I sell some and use the rest to feed the marine life on my "sea ranch". We should encourage more people to grow kelp - if the fish have food, we have food.

Sun Xianli spoke with Peng Yining.

Workers sink concrete blocks into waters off Qinhuangdao, Hebei province, to build artificial reefs that industry insiders say will attract large numbers of fish and restore the damaged marine environment. Liu Xuezhong / China Daily

(China Daily Africa Weekly 05/08/2015 page15)