Coast Protection

A coastal province is to appoint coast chiefs to fight pollution and illegal fishing.

The Zhejiang Provincial Government said on July 11 that the arrangement will take effect on August 7 and by the end of this year, all sections of the coast in Zhejiang should have a chief.

Coast chiefs will be responsible for dealing with waste discharged into the sea, illegal fishing gear, unlicensed fishing boats, unauthorized use of coast, and illicit ship building, repair and recycling, the government said in a circular.

Among China’s provinces and regions, Zhejiang has the longest coastline, stretching over 6,600 km.

Coast chiefs are regarded as an extension of the system of river chiefs, which is being introduced across the country after a successful trial in Jiangsu Province.

The responsibilities of river chiefs include water resource protection, pollution prevention and control, and ecological restoration. Their performance will be assessed, and they will be held accountable for environmental damage in the stretches of water they oversee.

Having first tested the practice in 2008 and then expanded it across the whole province in 2013, Zhejiang now has some 61,000 river chiefs.