MARINE DEVELOPMENT

2024-04-11 | BY Tham Siew Yean, Ngeow Chow-Bing
In the Chairman’s Statement of the 26th ASEAN-China Summit, issued in September 2023, it was stated that both sides recognized “the need to maximize the potential of blue economy as the new engine of growth to promote economic growth, social inclusion and livelihoods, and environmental sustainability” and that both sides also “agreed to continue discussion on exploring a partnership on...
2023-07-08 | BY Song Runxi, Wang Tengfei
In 2022, the issue of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing by the Vietnamese fishing boats in the SCS continued to be prominent, intensifying the maritime fishery disputes between maritime law enforcement institutes of Malaysia and Indonesia and Vietnamese fishermen. The Vietnamese government has taken steps to tackle IUU fishing in the SCS, but the results is modest. The sustainable development of marine fishery resources in the SCS concerns the vital interests of coastal states and fishermen. The Vietnamese government needs to continuously face up to the IUU fishing problem, taking effective measures to strengthen its fishery management, raising fishermen’s law-abiding awareness, enhancing the ability to inspect, control and supervise illegal fishing activities, and fulfilling corresponding international obligations. 
2022-09-05 | BY The CFRA
Katsuwonus pelamis, listed in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) as a highly migratory stock, is a South China Sea species that is fished heavily by rival claimants. Political disputes over sovereignty claims have made joint fisheries management difficult, if not impossible. The absence of a regional fisheries management organisation (RFMO) in the South China Sea further compounds this difficulty. As a result, no authoritative collaborative stock assessment on this or other stocks in the South China Sea has been carried out in recent years. New efforts by fisheries scientists from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam to develop a Common Fisheries Resource Analysis (CFRA) of katsuwonus pelamis in the South China Sea therefore represents a significant development in both regional science and regional cooperation. Using the Length-Based Spawning Potential Ratio (LBSPR) methodology, this paper examines the stock health of katsuwonus pelamis in the South China Sea. This delivers increased evidence to support domestic fisheries policymaking and develops norms and standards for regional cooperation.
2019-08-27 | BY Cao Qun
Given current realities in the SCS, the main focus should be on promoting scientific cooperation around fishery management, not politicization.
2019-04-08 | BY Tang Pei
As some of these countries enhance the power presence and military activities in the South China Sea in a way to cooperate with the U.S., security confrontation and geopolitical tensions are bound to be intensified in the region.
2019-03-25 | BY Hu Bo
The international community should cease the unnecessary hype on the South China Sea and believe that regional countries are willing and able to shelve disputes and manage differences, and contribute to the stability in the South China Sea.