http://news.yam.com/afp/life/200804/20080413037598.html
過漁污染 專家：南中國海生態遭到嚴重威脅
法新社╱郭無患 2008-04-13 15:05
（法新社河內十三日電）海洋科學家提出警告，飽受污染，又位處繁忙海運航線、並有多國主張主權爭議的南中國海，正遭受環境嚴重打擊，對於未來的魚產供應形成威脅。
南中國海位於密集污染以及快速工業化的東南亞核心地帶，聯合國表示，南中國海在過去十年中，已經有百分之十六的珊瑚礁、紅樹林，以及百分之三十的海草消失。
上週在越南河內舉行的研討會指出，在南中國海的爆炸性漁撈活動，不管合法或非法、家庭式小漁筏或大型遠洋拖網漁船，讓數百萬人賴以維生的漁業資源幾乎枯竭。
越南派駐聯合國環境計劃署南中國海計畫的代表指出，問題關鍵在於海盆棲地劣化甚至完全消失、過度捕撈以及陸地排放的污染過多，還有許多、許多問題，但這些問題是最嚴重的。
環繞南中國海的國家包括中國、台灣、菲律賓、印尼、馬來西亞、汶萊、新加坡、泰國、柬埔寨、以及越南，各國沿岸居民共約三億五千萬人。
世界自然基金海洋專家薛明敦表示：「不管是直接或間接，這裡有龐大的人口非常依賴南中國海的漁業過活，而這裡又是全球生物最為多樣化的海洋地帶」。
薛明敦在第四屆全球海洋、海岸暨島嶼研討會告訴「法新社」：「現在漁船必須跑得更遠、花更久的時間才能捕到跟以前相同數量的魚，但是抓到的魚越來越小」他補充說：「非法或未經申報就捕魚的情況很多，許多漁船都掛權宜船旗幟，這些都是漏洞」。
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080413/sc_afp/oceansenvironmentclimatefisheriessouthchinasea_080413014955;_ylt=At4cWcyHi0CsG.ynSd5BYc7POrgF
South China Sea headed for troubled waters: marine experts
by Frank Zeller
Sat Apr 12, 9:49 PM ET
HANOI (AFP) - Polluted, crossed by busy shipping lanes, and disputed by many countries, the South China Sea has taken an environmental battering that threatens future food supplies, marine scientists have warned.
In a decade the sea -- at the heart of a densely populated and rapidly industrialising region -- has lost 16 percent of its coral reefs and coastal mangroves and 30 percent of its sea grass, says the United Nations.
The exploitation of its fisheries, both legal and illegal, by family boats and industrial deep sea trawlers now threatens to deplete fish stocks that millions of people rely on, a Hanoi conference heard last week.
"The key issues on a basin scale are habitat degradation and loss, overfishing and land-based pollution," said Vo Si Tuan, who served as Vietnam representative to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) South China Sea Project.
"There are many, many problems, but these are the biggest."
The South China Sea is ringed by China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, with about 350 million people living along its coastal areas.
"There are large populations heavily dependent, directly and indirectly, on fishing, in one of the world's most biodiverse marine areas," said Keith Symington, a marine specialist with the World Wide Fund for Nature.
"The international trends are more pronounced in the South China Sea.
"Boats have to go further and fish longer to catch the same amount of fish and they are catching smaller fish," said Symington, speaking to AFP at the fourth Global Conference on Oceans, Coasts and Islands.
"There are a lot of illegal or unreported catches, there are fishing boats flying flags of convenience, there are loopholes."
The UN has highlighted the damage done to coral reefs, seagrass, mangroves and wetlands that are crucial for biodiversity and fish breeding.
Vietnam's Halong Bay, a world heritage-listed island scape, is a case in point, said Michael Hayes, an expert on tourism in protected marine areas.
"There are 138 coral species in Halong Bay, but most of the reefs are being destroyed by heavy sedimentation," he said.
Erosion from deforestation along the Red River is pouring silt into the bay, where shrimp farms and land reclamation have destroyed mangroves and heavy shipping, coal mining and tourism are polluting the waters.
"There is more and more pressure on the South China Sea, from fisheries but also from other exploitation like oil and gas and ballast waters from ships that introduce invasive species," he said.
Vietnam, aiming to protect its coastal areas, plans to send fewer and larger fishing boats deeper into the South China Sea, said Nguyen Chu Hoi, director of the Vietnam Institute of Fisheries Economics and Planning.
The communist government plans to declare 15 marine protected areas this year, he said, and to reduce its fleet of 90,000 mostly family-run boats by 30 percent over five years while encouraging more off-shore fishing.
The ships may be heading into troubled waters, and not just during the annual typhoon season that is set to worsen with climate change.
Fishing has already led to clashes on the high seas, with Chinese vessels and the Indonesian coastguard firing at Vietnamese ships.
Managing the South China Sea is complicated by the fact that at its heart lie the Spratly islands, which are claimed in full or in part by Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
"The South China Sea is a highly contested area," said Robert Jara of the Philippines' environment and natural resources department.
"One of the basic approaches now is putting aside the claims while we address the environment and the resource degradation of the South China Sea.
"If you address the claims before addressing the environment, at the end of the day everybody loses out."
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