China's top oceanic authority urged provincial governments to better protect Northeast China's severely polluted Bohai Sea via new legislation, media reported Monday.
During a two-day visit to Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning Province last week, an investigation team from the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) stated that most of the pollutants in the Bohai Sea come from inland sources, reported the China Ocean News, a newspaper affiliated to the SOA.
The group proposed swiftly passing new legislations and renovation plans in regard to the severe pollution of the Bohai Sea, and also the establishment of an index for emission reduction and a new information sharing mechanism.
The Bohai Sea, with an area of 77,284 square kilometers, is bordered by provinces including Liaoning, Hebei, Shandong and Tianjin that annually dump more than 2.8 billion tons of waste water along with 700,000 tons of other pollutants into the sea, the Economic Information Daily reported in August.
The SOA investigation team also ordered the four provincial governments to urgently discuss comprehensive approaches toward the protection of the sea, including online surveillance and water quality evaluation.
Ma Jun, director of the Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environment Affairs, previously told the Global Times that the dense population and heavy industries of the Bohai Sea Economic Zone have led to large amounts of garbage and industrial pollutants going straight into the sea.
These pollutants have severely affected the local fishing industry, causing fishing resources to shrink by around 90 percent.
