Fishing boats berth at the port in Tanmen town in Qionghai city, South China's Hainan Province on August 23, 2022. Photo: IC

First batch of over 4,000 fishing boats from four coastal cities in the latest Omicron-hard-hit South China's Hainan Province have started to resume fishing at sea starting Saturday with meticulous epidemic prevention and control in place. 

As the impact of tropical storm Ma-on weakened, a total of 4,258 fishing boats in the first batches of four cities and counties in the province including Haikou, Wenchang, Qionghai and Changjiang eligible for the resumption of fishing at sea gradually started to resume operation, according to a report by Central China Television (CCTV) on Saturday. 

The Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Hainan Province had earlier decided to allow local fishing boats to gradually resume fishing at sea since last Tuesday after the summer fishing ban for the South China Sea officially ended on August 16 in a bid to reduce the influence of the COVID-19 on the production of fishing industry and the livelihood of local fishermen. 

However, the resumption was put on hold due to the severe influence of tropical storm Ma-on, the ninth typhoon of the year, on the South China Sea since last Wednesday. 

The three conditions for fishing boats and fishermen to go fishing at sea include that the cities and the counties have reported zero COVID-19 cases at community for 72 hours in a row. Besides this, the towns and villages that are allowed to resume fishing operation should belong to zero-COVID area or low-risk area. Moreover, the fishermen should have no travel history to medium- and high-risk areas within seven days before they set off to the sea, and have to present negative nucleic acid testing results obtained within 48 hours before they set out, Lin Moxie, deputy director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Hainan Province, told the CCTV. 

Those cities and counties that have not yet met the conditions will be gradually allowed to resume operation once they meet the requirements, according to Zhang Linzhong, an official from the department. 

The Omicron BA5.1.3 mutated variant identified as the origin of the latest outbreak in Hainan was believed to be imported through fishery trading by fishermen from Sanya city with foreign fishermen. 

Over 80 fishing boats at the Tantmen Central Fishing port in Qionghai city put out to sea since Saturday noon. A fisherman named Lu Quanbin told the media that the fishermen were happy to go fishing in the waters near the Nansha Islands and they expected a good harvest. 

At the Qinglan fishing harbor in Wenchang city, the first batch of a total of 217 fishing boats eligible for resuming fishing at sea set off to the sea on Saturday. 

Apart from the necessary preparation work for fishing at sea before they set out, fishermen took nucleic acid tests under the direction of the epidemic prevention and control workers who further strengthened the epidemic prevention work to assure the resumption of the fishing at sea to conduct in an orderly manner, according to media reports. 

Liu Jun, director of the fisheries affairs service center in Wenchang, told the media that all the fishing boats set off to the sea had registered at the center and the fishermen can smoothly go fishing at sea as long as they take five nucleic acid tests in seven days. 

Apart from the nucleic acid testing requirements, local fishermen have to report to the local agricultural and fishing management departments in advance and sign maritime epidemic prevention commitment letters, cooperate in the disinfection of the fishing boats, and report truthfully about the situation of frozen seafood. 

A local fisherman named Zhang Chengming who has been engaged in the fishing industry for over two decades told local newspaper Hainan Ribao that the preparation work before they set out to the sea was increased compared with the past due to the epidemic and more strict requirements have been posed on hiring workers. 

Global Times