It is expected to be agreed at the end of the year and will protect water resources and the ecological environment, an official from the Ministry of Agriculture told China Daily yesterday.

Measures will be taken to tackle over fishing and maintain the sustainable development of the sector while protecting rare aquatic species.

Pan Peng, who is masterminding the action plan for the Ministry of Agriculture, said it was "essential for the improvement of the aquatic environment."

Although water quality is generally good, inland lakes and rivers and coastal areas are increasingly polluted, according to a bulletin released by the Ministry of Agriculture and the State Environmental Protection Administration yesterday.

More than half the inland and coastal waters currently monitored have been polluted to different degrees, stated the report.

Seawater is cleaner than that of the coastal areas and estuaries, but both have suffered frequently from red tides in recent years.

Major pollutants cited in the bulletin include nutritious salt, organisms, petroleum and heavy metals.

Increasing environmental pollution, construction and frequent natural disasters in China have posed difficulties in the protection of fish-related ecology.

China has established an efficient monitoring network to keep track of ecological conditions in China's major inland fisheries and coastal fishing waters.

The monitoring system has successfully provided first-hand statistics since it was launched in 2000, the ministry said.

These statistics have significantly improved environmental protection efforts and promoted sustainable development in the fishing industry.

The protection of fishery waters has been part of China's efforts to protect its environment over the past years and pollution in the sector has led to great economic losses to the nation.

"The pollution situation in the sector hasn't changed greatly in recent years," the bulletin stated.

Last year, there were more than 1,240 incidences of pollution in fishing waters across the country, causing an economic loss of about 350 million yuan (US$42 million).

In 1999 and 2000, a total of 2,067 such cases were reported, causing economic losses of 1.1 billion yuan (US$128 million).

Environmental pollution also caused long-term damage that eventually reduced the country's fish supply and caused an average annual loss of roughly 3 billion yuan (US$363 million) over the past three years.

(China Daily June 12, 2002)