Xinhua News Agency, Huangyan Island, April 18 (Reporters Gao Lei and Liang Shun) In the vast "South China Sea Blue Granary", thousands of fishing boats are fishing almost every day, and they are fully receiving the generous gifts of nature. In recent years, the Chinese Coast Guard has strengthened the control of the South China Sea waters, including Huangyan Island, and performed its duties by boarding and inspecting fishing boats, further standardizing fishermen's fishing operations, and effectively defending my country's maritime rights and interests.

  Huangyan Island is about 480 nautical miles away from the Pearl River Estuary (1 nautical mile equals 1.852 kilometers). It is the only coral island and reef exposed to the water in the Zhongsha Islands in my country, with a total area of ​​about 150 square kilometers. On the morning of the 12th, the Coast Guard law enforcement officer set out on a small boat from the Chinese Coast Guard Huangyan ship, which was carrying out a mission in the waters near Huangyan Island. After a while, he arrived under two Hainan fishing boats that were anchored. There were fishermen on the side of the boat ready to pick up the cables.

  After boarding the ship, the coast guard law enforcement officer entered the cab and immediately began routine inspections. He first asked the captain to present the nationality certificate and fishing license and other documents and register, and then learned about the recent operation of the fishing boat, and then preached fishing and environmental protection policies to the captain.

  Outside the cab, snails and sea fish were dried on the front deck under the scorching sun. Law enforcement officers went down from the cab to the fore deck to check the fishing boat equipment, and opened the seawater aquaculture hatch to check the live fish caught by the fishing boat. The high temperature and humidity in the South China Sea made law enforcement officers wearing long-sleeved uniforms sweat, but they immediately opened the cold storage and inspected the vacuum-packed ice and fresh fish, which endured the test of "ice and fire" in a short period of time.

  Before he knew it was noon, the captain of the fishing boat asked the law enforcement officers to have lunch together, but was politely declined. Law enforcement officer Ye Yu told the fishermen sitting around the back deck for lunch, hoping that everyone would abide by laws and regulations and keep in touch with the coast guard. "We have doctors on the ship, and we can call us any needs, and we are here to serve everyone."

  After the Chinese government announced the baseline of Huangyan Island's territorial sea in November last year, the Chinese Coast Guard strengthened the control of the waters of Huangyan Island in accordance with the law. At present, the Coast Guard routinely boarded Chinese fishing boats to standardize fishermen's production operations and cracked down on illegal fishing.

  The 56-year-old captain He Junting comes from a family of fishermen in Tanmen Town, Qionghai City, Hainan Province. He has been fishing since he was 13 years old and is familiar with every water in the South China Sea. He Junting recalled that in the early years, foreign fishing boats often entered the waters of Huangyan Island, and some fishing boats even used extreme operating methods such as electric fish and poisonous fish to seize fishery resources, seriously destroying the marine ecological environment. Chinese fishermen dared not speak out. "There are now a coast guard here to protect us, and we are much safer to work here."

  Wang Shuxian, a captain of another fishing boat, said that every voyage can harvest about 20,000 kilograms of seafood, and the main operating methods are net and diving fishing, so the livelihoods of more than 20 people on the ship are guaranteed.

  According to the Coast Guard, at present, the Chinese Coast Guard has strengthened patrol alert for the waters under the jurisdiction of my country's South China Sea. In daily rights protection and law enforcement operations, in addition to carrying out tasks such as guarding key islands and reefs, marine ecological environment protection and fishery management, it has also played an important role in cracking down on criminal activities such as maritime smuggling and drug trafficking and maintaining maritime public security.

[Editor in charge: Cheng Lan]