Fishing moratorium announced for northern Indian Ocean

China will start a voluntary fishing moratorium on the high seas, according to a circular released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs on Wednesday.

This is the first instance of a trial voluntary fishing moratorium in the northern Indian Ocean.

During the moratorium, which will last from July 1 to Sept 30, all ocean fishing vessels are banned from fishing in the closed waters, the circular said.

So far, any high sea area, or any fish species that are not managed by international and regional fishery organizations have been included in the scope of China's voluntary fishing bans.

Moratorium measures in some areas of the high seas of the Atlantic Ocean and the East Pacific have been taken in the past two years, involving 70 ocean fishing enterprises and 1,500 boats.

According to monitoring and analysis by scientific research institutions, squid growth has improved significantly after the moratorium and the output of a single ship has increased, indicating preliminary positive results of the ban.