China’s bottom trawl fisheries and their global impact

Abstract China dominates the world’s highly destructive bottom trawl fisheries (BTF), active in 30 countries and landing 28% of BTF catch. We created the first time series for China’s BTF, from 1950 to 2018, and examined their national and global impacts. Between 1978 and 1997, China’s BTF fleet increased 47 fold (in numbers) and 26 fold (in engine power), driving enormous acceleration in Asia’s fishing capacity. China embarked on BTF globally from 1985, particularly in East Asia and Africa. Such distant water fisheries (DWF) absorb about 20% of China’s BTF capacity. China’s rampant BTF raises significant concerns: fish availability plummeted wherever China fished, domestically and in DWF; there are strong indications of fishing through the food web and fishing indiscriminately in China’s EEZ; and the mean trophic level of catch eaten by humans has declined. Urgent management interventions are needed to stem such ‘slash-and-burn’ fishing practices in China and worldwide.