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Fishing vessels await the start of the seven-and-a-half-month fishing season in Shipu Harbor near Ningbo, home to one of the largest fishing fleets in the East China Sea. Shipu has been a fishing village since the 1300s, but the coastal fishery is now severely depleted, forcing Chinese fishermen into international waters where they are frequently cited for illegally fishing in other countries’ exclusive economic zones. Since the 1980s the Chinese government has subsidized and incentivized its deepwater fishing fleet, which is now the largest in the world, with some three thousand ships working the high seas. Growing pressure from other nations and within China has led the Chinese government to reduce its fishing subsidies and impose strict fishing seasons and size limits on its coastal fisheries to help rebuild nearshore fish stocks. With stricter regulations and declining catches, local fishermen in Shipu say it is getting harder and harder to make their living from their local waters.

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Fishing vessels await the start of the seven-and-a-half-month fishing season in Shipu Harbor near Ningbo, home to one of the largest fishing fleets in the East China Sea. Shipu has been a fishing village since the 1300s, but the coastal fishery is now severely depleted, forcing Chinese fishermen into international waters where they are frequently cited for illegally fishing in other countries’ exclusive economic zones. Since the 1980s the Chinese government has subsidized and incentivized its deepwater fishing fleet, which is now the largest in the world, with some three thousand ships working the high seas. Growing pressure from other nations and within China has led the Chinese government to reduce its fishing subsidies and impose strict fishing seasons and size limits on its coastal fisheries to help rebuild nearshore fish stocks. With stricter regulations and declining catches, local fishermen in Shipu say it is getting harder and harder to make their living from their local waters.

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