A new fishing harbor in Sanya, South China's Hainan Province was opened on Monday, which is closest to fishing grounds in the South China Sea and the most important distributing center for aquatic products.
Covering 87 hectares, the Yazhou Central Fishing Harbor, a first-grade national port, together with a water area of 93 hectares, will be the base for the docking, sheltering, uploading and supplying boats heading to the South China Sea, news site cnr.cn reported on Monday.
It will also provide services for the industry's processing and cold-chain logistics of fishing industry.
About 150 licensed boats will set out from the harbor to Beibu Gulf, Xisha and Nansha. A fisherman surnamed Gui, said locals had lived on fishing for a decade in the Xisha area of the South China Sea, about 140 nautical miles away from Sanya.
Also on Monday, thousands of local fishermen gathered along the harbor early morning to observe the end of the 18th year of a summer fishing moratorium, which included dragon boat cruising, sea worship, and folklore performances.
Islanders, who have been fishing there for generations, were hardly affected by an arbitral tribunal's ruling on July 12 on the South China Sea dispute case, the Xinhua News Agency reported. China neither accepts nor recognizes the award of the arbitral court.
