In 1999, the coastal marine water was seriously polluted and the environmental situation in the coastal marine zones was rather bad on the whole. The degradation trend of the marine environment has not yet been controlled effectively.
Water Quality in Coastal Marine ZonesIn the coastal marine zones in China, the pollution in the East Sea is the most serious and next comes Bohai Sea. The water quality in South China Sea and Yellow Sea is comparatively good.
The monitoring results of the 368 coastal monitoring stations indicate that the coastal marine zones were dominated by sea water worse than Level IV and Level II in 1999, accounting for 31.5% and 28.5% respectively. Level I sea water accounted for 14.7%, Level III accounted for 10.3% and Level IV accounted for 15.0%. The major pollution indicators are inorganic ammonia and active phosphate. In some marine zones, the rate surpassing the standards as to the indicators of petroleum and COD was very high and in some marine zones, the heavy metal lead surpassed the standard.
level of Water Quality in Coastal Marine Areas
in China in 1999In the four major marine zones, East Sea is the one with the highest rate of marine water worse than Level IV is the, accounting for 53.0%; next comes the south China Sea, accounting for 34.7% of the monitoring stations; Bohai Sea accounts for 18.6% and the Yellow Sea account for 18.2%.In the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly governed by the Central Government along the sea, the coastal marine pollution in Shanghai, Zhejiang and Guangdong is rather serious and the coastal sea water in Hainan and Shandong is comparatively good.
In 1999, 15 red tides were recorded in the marine zones in China, with 7 times less than in the previous year. Among the 15 red tides, the area of the noctiluca red tide in Liaodong Bay from July 13 to July 21 was the most serious one, hitting 6.3 million m2 and lasting nine days. The red tide organism is mainly dominated by Pyrrophyta. The red tides in 1999 did not resulted in any poisoning accidents of human being.
Recipient Amount of Waste Water and Major Pollutants
In 1999, the recipient amount of industrial waste water in the coastal sea in China was 3.66 billion tons, with 320 hundred million tons less than that in the previous year, among which, the amount in Bohai Sea was 560 million tons, Yellow Sea being 710 million tons, East Sea being 1.48 billion tons and the south China 920 hundred tons.
In 1999, COD in the recipient waste water in the coastal marine zones in China was 1.111 million tons, accounting for 16.1% of the total industrial COD discharge, with 293,000 tons less than in the previous year, among which, the amount in Bohai Sea was 350,000 tons, Yellow Sea being 180,000 tons, East Sea being 320,000 tons and South China Sea being 260,000 tons.
Impact of Marine Oil and Gas Exploration
Amendment to the Marine Environmental Protection Law of the People's Republic of China On 25 December 1999, the 13th Session of the Ninth Standing Meeting of the National People's Congress passed the amended Marine Environmental Protection Law of the People's Republic of China. The amended Marine Environmental Protection Law of the People's Republic of China stipulates the responsibilities and rights of the relevant departments concerning marine environmental management, with two new chapters on "Marine Environmental Supervision Management" and "Marine Ecological Protection", as well as three chapters on " Supervision Management on Pollution Prevention of Marine Engineering Construction Projects", " Marine Ecological Protection" and "Marine Environmental Pollution Prevention of Marine Engineering Construction Projects". Items of conducting total pollution discharge control system and emergent oil spillage response plan have been added into the Law and the articles on legal responsibilities have been improved.
"Blue Sea Action Plan for Bohai Sea" ratified by the State Council was initiated. In 1999, the comprehensive treatment project of Bohai Sea was kicked off. The comprehensive Bohai treatment project is dominated by the three provinces and one municipality surrounding Bohai Sea (Hebei province, Liaonin Province, Shandong Province and Tianjin Municipality) and participated by the provinces and municipalities in the economic zone surrounding Bohai Sea. The overall targets of the project are the natural resource exploration of Bohai Sea, sustainable development of ecological environment and sustainable, healthy development of the social economy in the economic zone surrounding the Bohai Sea. The main contents are pollution control, environmental treatment, restoration of natural resource environment, ecological environmental remedy and disaster prevention and control. The key actions are estuary wetland protection and ecological remedy, pollution prevention in the bay, healthy aquatic farming, habitat remedy in the tidal areas and warning and prevention of red tides, oil spillage and marine ice.
(100 million yuan)
(100 million yuan)1999/1998
(%)
infra-structure facilities
Four Major Seas in China
Boundaries, which separate the near-shore coastal area of China into four major seas, are as follows: line between Laotieshan cape in Liaodong Peninsula and Penglai cape in Shandong Peninsula is the boundary of Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea; line between Qidong cape north to Changjiang Estuary and Jizhou island south-west to Korea Peninsula is the boundary of Yellow Sea and East Sea; line from Nan¡¯ao Island to Eluanbi in the south of Taiwan Island via Taiwan Shallows is the boundary of East Sea and South Sea.
Bohai Sea is an inland sea in China which is about 97,000 km2 and 26m average-depth. The four littoral provinces (cities) are Liaoning Province, Hebei Province, Tianjin City, and Shangdong Province. Total coastal population is 46,560,000, with population of 11,270,000 along the coast of Liaodong, population of 21,560,000 along the coast of Bohai Sea Bay, and population of 13,730,000 along the coast of Laizhou Bay. The population density is 419 people/km2.
Yellow Sea is a semi-enclosed continental shelf shallow-sea. Its area is more than 400,000km2, and its average water depth is 44m. The littoral provinces are Shandong Province, Liaoning Province, and Jiangsu Province. The coastal population is 41,420,000, among which 12,940,000 to the north of Yellow Sea is 31% of total amount, and 28,650,000 to the south of Yellow Sea is 69%. The population density is 431 people/km2.
The littoral area of Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea is one of the most developed economic areas in North China. It is a concentrated area both of harbour and industry in China that has rich natural resource and advanced transportation in aero-amphibious area. Based on the statistics, the gross industrial and agricultural value of output is 1187.7 billion-Yuan. Most of mainstay enterprises in Jiangsu Province, Shandong Province, Tianjin City, and Liaoning Province are along the cost of Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea. Sections in this area are include iron and steel industry, machine production and operation, shipbuilding, electron tube instrument production, oil industry, chemical industry, textiles, light industry, metallurgical industry, food, processing, medicine, etc. This area is also important salt-producing area, oil-producing area at sea, and marine product base in China. The output of crude salt is 70% of total amount. Most of alkali plants in China, which use the crude salt as raw material, are built in this area. The output of offshore oil is more than half of total amount. Meanwhile, metallurgical industry is specially developed, and colliery resource is rich in this area. In recent years, due to villages and township enterprises and private businesses developed fast, the economy in this area stepped in a new stage. But as most of them did not have perfect environmental protection equipment and method, a large number of wastewater discharging to the sea severely polluted near shore sea area.
East Sea has 800,000 km2 area and 370 m average water depth. The littoral provinces are Shanghai City, Zhejiang Province, Fujian Province, and Taiwan Province. Total population along the coast (not include Taiwan Province) is 46,920,000, the average population density is 659 people/km2.
South Sea has 3,500,000 km2 area and 1,212 m average water depth. The littoral provinces are Guangdong Province, Guangxi Province, and Hainan Province. Total population along the coast is 41,580,000, the average population density is 453 people/km2.
The natural geography environment is special in East Sea and South Sea. There are thousands of islands include four main islands in China; there are tens of rivers injection port include the most main catchment rivers (e.g. Changjiang River and Zhu River); there are the biggest and most important marine fishery in China; there are many good harbours and bays distribute along the coast; there are rich marine resource such as oil, natural gas, and aquatic product in the two seas. Its social economy environment is more prominent because six main economic zones identified by the government stand erect along the coast. In addition, Hongkong Special Administrative Area and Macao, a set of planing single listed cities and decades of coastal opening-up cities distribute along the seashore. The special natural geography environment combining with rich natural resource, and prominent social environment promote urban construction developing fast along the coast of East Sea and South Sea, lead to highly concentrated urban population, bring on busy ocean shipping and sea transportation, result in highly concentrated all kinds of industry, conduce to high speed economic development in local area, induce high intensity marine economy and marine exploration, make it for one of the most developed areas on economy in China. Changjiang River delta and Zhu River delta in that area is the most developed area on economy. According to incomplete statistic, the gross industrial and agricultural value of output along the East Sea and South Sea coast is more than 190 million Yuan. Industry and agriculture in that area develop with steady speed now. Structure of production became more and more perfect. Sectors such as food, rag trade, electron, communication and information, petrochemical industry, electrical home appliances, medicine, textile, printing and dyeing, plastic, iron and steel, machine production and operation, shipbuilding, automobile, power station equipment, construction material and etc. are completed. Especially the sectors of food rag trade, electron play an important role in the whole national economy, and outputs are high technology. Meanwhile, the development of harbor construction in this area is very fast, there are some large, comprehensive harbors in Shanghai, Ningbo, Guangzhou, Zhanjiang, and Hong Kong.
Red Tide Red
tide is the phenomena that marine plankton multiply and gather quickly, unconventionally and explosively in special condition, they go with the wave and make the sea change its color dyed by them. Red tide is named after the sea change to red. Actually the color of red tide is not always red, along with the color of the kind of creature which cause the red tide, the red tide can have different colors. For example, the color of red tide caused by Noctiluca is pink. The color of red tide caused by a kind of animalcule is red. The color of red tide caused by an other kind of animalcule is yellow-green. The other colors of red tide are gray-brown and dark brown.
There are multi kinds of marine organisms can cause red tide. According to the statistics, there are about more than 200 kinds of red tide creature in the world, expect those belong to bacterium and protozoa, most of them are plankton, such as Cyanophyceae, Pyrrophyta, diatom, green flagellate, green alga and etc. There are more than 80 kinds of red tide creature in our sea, among which there are 38 poison red tide creature, 31 kinds of Pyrrophyta, 5 kinds of green flagellate and 2 kinds of alga.
