Fishing Season Special Alert

Figure 1: Thousands of fishing vessels depart simultaneously as the Bohai and Yellow Sea fishing season reopens (illustrative image)

At 1200 hrs on September 1, the four-month summer fishing moratorium ends in the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea north of latitude 35°N. Over 30,000 fishing vessels from Shandong, Liaoning, Hebei and Tianjin will simultaneously depart for traditional fishing grounds. China's coastal waters host more than 200,000 active fishing vessels, with traditional fishing grounds heavily overlapping international and domestic shipping lanes. In the past five years, 60 merchant-fishing vessel collisions at or above the general accident level were recorded, resulting in 164 fatalities or missing persons — each incident shattering a family.

In April 2024, the second officer of a Panama-flagged container ship (Vessel A) left the bridge to download electronic charts in the radio room, leaving the bridge unmanned for 20 minutes. The BNWAS had been incorrectly set and failed to trigger an alarm. The vessel collided with a fishing boat, killing all 8 crew members. In the "Jinwangling" case, the give-way vessel failed to take early, substantial action and repeatedly relied on VHF calls instead of manoeuvring. The second officer was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months for traffic肇事 negligence. In 2016, the bulk carrier "CATALINA" collided head-on with the fishing vessel "Lurongyu 58398" in dense fog off the Zhejiang coast. The fishing vessel capsized and sank instantly — 14 crew died and 5 were missing, while the freighter suffered only a dented bow.

All three accidents share the same root causes: watchkeepers leaving the bridge or failing to maintain a proper lookout; give-way vessels acting too late with insufficient alteration; and over-reliance on VHF communication instead of proactive manoeuvring. Even a slight contact between a merchant ship and a fishing vessel can capsize the smaller craft, often without anyone on the bridge even noticing.

Figure 2: Night navigation in fishing grounds — the bridge team must maintain a proper lookout using vision, radar and AIS in combination (illustrative image)

● Early: Detect fishing vessel clusters at 5 NM on long-range radar; initiate avoiding decisions at 3 NM — never delay until close-quarters. Stand by engines and steering one hour before entering fishing grounds.

● Large: Alter course by no less than 30° so fishing vessels can clearly read your intention; small alterations are easily misread. In congested waters, substantial speed reduction or stopping is often more effective than turning. If three VHF calls go unanswered, treat the vessel as unwatched and take immediate avoiding action, accompanied by 5 short flashes on the daylight signalling lamp and 5 short blasts on the whistle.

● Wide: Maintain a minimum passing distance of at least 1 NM in open waters and 0.5 NM in congested areas. "Rather steam 1 NM around than risk 0.5 NM through" — detouring is safer and more economical than cutting through. Never pass between pair-trawlers, to leeward of purse seiners, or across the bow of longliners.

● Clear: Resume your original course and speed only after confirming the vessel is finally past and clear with no risk of a second collision. For fishing vessels with erratic course/speed, maintain continuous radar plotting and take one substantial alteration and/or major speed reduction at 1–2 NM to clear in a single action.

Avoidance by fishing gear type: pass at least 1 NM astern of pair-trawlers; at least 0.5 NM to windward of purse seiners; at least 0.5 NM astern of longliners. Watch for nearly stationary gillnet/set-net vessels and their gear-protecting manoeuvres.

● Stay off channels: Do not set nets in shipping lanes, anchorages or pilot boarding areas.

● Don't cut the bow: Abandon the old habit of cutting across a large vessel's bow — understand their limited manoeuvrability and blind sectors.

● Never leave the watch: Maintain a 24-hour bridge watch, display correct lights and shapes, keep AIS on, and maintain a continuous listening watch on VHF Ch.16.

● No violations: Eliminate the "five excesses": excess crew, excess load, excess horsepower, excess operating area, and excess wind force operations.

● Don't take risks: Seek shelter in gales and dense fog; call 12395 (China MSA distress line) in an emergency.

In night fishing grounds (highest risk 2300–0400), steer by hand, maintain a safe speed, and post an additional lookout. Use the searchlight to scan the bow sectors and radar blind areas; watch for unlit vessels and learn to identify trawler lights (two sidelights + green light + white light) and purse seiner lights (two sidelights + two white lights). In reduced visibility, stand by engines and sound signals (one prolonged blast every 2 minutes for power-driven vessels underway), use two radars on alternating range scales, use rain suppression cautiously to avoid filtering out small returns, and heave to if necessary until the fog lifts. In dense fishing vessel concentrations, the master must take the conn, steer by hand, and pass around the outer edge of the fleet. Beware of massive AIS interference from net buoys, and continuously monitor other merchant vessels also manoeuvring in the area.

After a collision, follow four steps: stop immediately and rescue survivors → report to the nearest maritime authority within 10 minutes → never leave the scene before all persons are accounted for → preserve the logbook, engine-room bell record, AIS log, VHF recording and VDR data for the investigation. Hit-and-run at sea carries severe criminal penalties.

The whistle on September 1 marks the start of the harvest — and a safety reminder for every mariner. With more proactive avoidance from merchant ships and greater discipline from fishing crews, we can make these waters safer. May every fishing vessel return with a full catch and every merchant ship reach her port safely.