Assessment of impact of Summer Fishing Moratorium on shrimp fishing in northern Beibu Gulf

As one of the chief inhabitations for staple shrimps in the South China Sea, northern Beibu Gulf is abundant with shrimp resource. It consists of 13 shrimp fishing grounds of various sizes distributed mainly along Guangxi coast. Shrimp fishing methods include trawling, gear net, pot fishing and set net. Based on thefishing information and data collected from Guangxi vessels engaged in shrimp fishing, this paper makes assessment on shrimp catches and fishing composition. In addition, it analyzes the impact of Summer Fishing Moratorium (SFM) of the South China Sea on shrimp fishing. The results show that the shrimp catch in northern Beibu Gulf in 2014 was estimatedto 8 357 905 kg. Catch from beam trawling made up 91.62% of the total. The economic indices of fishing vessels improved obviously after SFM. Ratio of staple shrimps to the total shrimp catch increased by 40.34%, while non-staples dropped by 28.53% at the same time. Practice of SFM significantly led to alleviation of fishing effort, recovery of shrimp resource, optimization of shrimp population composition, improvement of efficiency and profits of shrimp fishing, etc.. It is suggested that illegal fishing should be wiped out and stock enhancement of staple shrimps should be implemented during SFM to improve efficiency and impacts of SFM and to promote sustainable development of shrimp fishing in northern Beibu Gulf.