On December 27, 2025, the 19th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress voted to pass the newly revised "Fisheries Law of the People's Republic of China", which will come into effect on May 1, 2026.
The new law has for the first time established "green development" as a legal principle, upgrading the entire chain from breeding, fishing to ecological protection, which is directly related to the vital interests of millions of fishermen and breeders!
01 Legal Evolution
In 1986, China's first "Fisheries Law" was formulated and implemented. Subsequently, it underwent four partial revisions in 2000, 2004, 2009 and 2013.
Over the past four decades, this law has played a significant role in strengthening the protection, proliferation, development and rational utilization of fishery resources and safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of fishery producers.
However, as time went by, this law gradually exposed problems that were not in line with the actual needs of fishery development under the new situation.
02 Core Transformation
The newly revised Fisheries Law has put forward a clear development orientation, requiring the coordinated development and security, the protection and sustainable utilization of fishery resources, and adhering to the principles of equal emphasis on quantity and quality, innovation-driven development, and green development.
In terms of the overall structure, the new law has added a special chapter on "supervision and management", significantly improving supervision and management measures. This change reflects the legislators' hope to ensure that fishery laws and regulations are effectively implemented by strengthening law enforcement and supervision.
For the fishery breeding industry, the new law clearly supports breeding models that are resource-conserving, environmentally friendly and of high quality and safety, and encourages the legal development of green and ecological breeding in Marine, river, lake and reservoir waters.
At the same time, it is required that those engaged in aquaculture production should protect the ecological environment of water areas and tidal flats, scientifically determine the density and scale of aquaculture, and the tail water discharged from aquaculture should comply with relevant pollutant discharge standards.
03 Green Breeding
The newly revised Fisheries Law has made a series of innovative provisions in promoting and regulating fishery breeding, embodying the concept of green development.
The new law for the first time proposes to establish a protection system for aquaculture waters and tidal flats, requiring local people's governments at or above the county level to organize the formulation and implementation of plans for aquaculture waters and tidal flats, and rationally demarcate aquaculture areas and restricted aquaculture areas.
It is particularly worth noting that the new law clearly stipulates that the tail water discharged from aquaculture should comply with relevant pollutant discharge standards, scientifically determine the density and scale of aquaculture, and rationally feed, feed and use drugs.
To enhance the quality and safety of aquaculture production, the new law strictly stipulates that no feed, feed, drugs or other toxic and harmful substances prohibited by the state shall be used in aquaculture production.
Producers of aquatic seedlings and units engaged in aquaculture shall also truthfully record and preserve information on the introduction and cultivation of aquatic seedling parents, seedling breeding and production, disease prevention and control, medication, input use, and product sales.
04 Fishing Management
The newly revised Fisheries Law has made systematic improvements in strict fishery catch management, aiming to achieve a balance between fishing capacity and the exploitable amount of fishery resources.
According to the new law, the state will determine the control indicators for fishing vessels, nets and tools based on the principle that the fishing capacity is commensurate with the exploitable amount of fishery resources. The competent authorities of fishery and fishery administration shall, within the scope of these control indicators, approve the indicators for fishery vessels, nets and tools in a classified and graded manner.
The manufacture, modification of fishing vessels and the application for inspection and registration of fishing vessels shall all first obtain the indicators of fishing vessel nets and tools. This system design aims to control the intensity of fishing from the source and prevent overfishing.
In response to the issue of "three-no" fishing vessels, the new law explicitly prohibits such vessels from engaging in fishing operations and also prohibits providing services such as fuel supply, water supply, and ice supply to them.
05 Resource Protection
The new law has made breakthrough progress in the protection of aquatic germplasm resources. The new law stipulates that the state will establish an aquatic germplasm resource bank to strengthen the investigation, collection, sorting, identification, registration and preservation of aquatic germplasm resources.
A list system for the protection of aquatic germplasm resources will also be established. In accordance with the needs of resource protection, the new law will revise and improve the current approval system for the import and export of aquatic seedlings in the Fishery Law to an approval system for the import and export of aquatic germplasm resources.
For the protection of important fishery waters, the new law stipulates that the environmental impact assessment documents for specific engineering construction projects carried out in important fishery waters should include the content of the impact on fishery resources and the ecological environment of fishery waters or prepare a special argumentation report.
At the same time, when the competent department of ecological environment reviews relevant documents, it shall seek the opinions of the competent department of fishery and fishery administration at the same level. This regulation will help reduce the negative impact of engineering construction on fishery resources.
06 Safety Supervision
The newly revised Fisheries Law attaches great importance to fishery safety production, requiring units engaged in fishery production to establish and improve safety production rules and regulations, and strengthen safety production education, training and management.
In response to the safety issues of fishing vessels, the new law adheres to the principle of "prevention first, combination of prevention and control", emphasizing that fishing vessels should meet seaworthiness requirements, install and ensure that relevant facilities and equipment are in good operating condition.
In addition, fishing vessels should be fully staffed with fishery crew members, legally purchase safety production liability insurance, promote the use of standardized vessel types, and enhance the safety operation level of fishing vessels.
Owners and operators of fishing ports are also required to do a good job in safety production and other work, and provide fishing port services such as mooring and replenishment, and emergency avoidance for fishing vessels.
In response to the frequent occurrence of water traffic accidents, the new law requires the fishery and fishery administration authorities and the transportation authorities to enhance collaboration and jointly prevent the occurrence of ship collision accidents.
07 Impact of Employment
The implementation of the new law will have specific and far-reaching impacts on different fishery practitioners.
For aquaculture farmers, after the implementation of the new law, they need to pay special attention to the discharge standards of aquaculture tail water to ensure compliance with relevant pollutant discharge standards. At the same time, information on the entire process of aquaculture production must be recorded and preserved in accordance with regulations for at least two years.
When breeding invasive or hybrid species, it is necessary to file with the competent authority and formulate an emergency response plan to prevent species from escaping.
For fishermen, it is necessary to closely monitor the changes in the policies on the control indicators of fishing vessels and nets to ensure that they obtain fishing licenses legally. During the operation process, it is essential to strictly abide by the requirements stipulated in the fishing license regarding the type of operation, location, time limit and the number of fishing gear, etc.
Even ordinary people need to understand the new law's regulations on fishing activities. Although individuals who obtain aquatic products sporadically through recreational fishing do not need to apply for a fishing license, they must abide by relevant regulations to prevent the destruction of fishery resources.
The newly revised Fisheries Law not only requires that the tail water discharged from aquaculture must meet the pollutant discharge standards, but also improves the no-fishing zone and no-fishing period system, prohibiting fishing activities in violation of the regulations on no-fishing zones and no-fishing periods, and prohibiting illegal fishing.
After the implementation of the new law, when carrying out engineering construction in important fishery waters, the environmental impact assessment documents must include the content of the impact on fishery resources and the ecological environment of fishery waters.
Starting from May 1, 2026, China's rivers, lakes and seas will embrace a new era of greener and more sustainable fishery development under the protection of a brand-new law.