Fish species down 70 percent in E China over 40 years

The number of inshore fish species in Shandong province has dropped by 72.5 percent from over 400 in the 1970s to about 110 currently, provincial authorities said Thursday.

According to the provincial government, the shrinking of inshore fish resources is the result of over-fishing and water pollution.

Major pollutants were inorganic chloride, active phosphate and petroleum. Some of them have led to eutrophication of the sea water and disrupted the balance of the maritime ecosystem, officials with the provincial government said.

Shandong, a major fishing province in China, has a coastline of 3,345 kilometers and offshore areas covering 159,000 square kilometers. It produced a total of 8.63 million tonnes of aquatic products in 2013, or about one-fifth of the country's total.