Ethical logic of modern fisheries and aquaculture governance

After years of development, China’s fisheries and aquaculture industry has laid a solid economic foundation by successively addressing the difficulties of catching fish, raising fish, and eating fish. The principal contradiction in this area has evolved from the issues surrounding basic livelihood (i.e. food and income) to those concerning habitat conservation, human rights, gender equality, property rights and other high-level needs. Conserving aquatic resources while maintaining fisheries justice have emerged as an irresistible trend of our time, as sustainability and responsibility become increasingly emphasized. Under this premise, fisheries and aquaculture ethics, as a form of superstructure, deserves systematic research for value identification and ranking. The study initially put forward the concept of fisheries and aquaculture ethics, that is, a set of orders and norms dealing with human-fish relations and interpersonal interactions among stakeholders, which take the rationality and legitimacy of fisheries and aquaculture as the research object and provide a judgment basis for relevant practices. Main points regarding ecological, social and industrial ethics in fisheries and aquaculture were summarized, followed by the exploration of ethics-based management theories from eco-holistic perspectives (e.g. Precautionary Principle, Ecosystem-based Management, Large Marine Ecosystems) to value-balanced perspectives (e.g. Management Strategy of Evaluation, Justification Theory). Practical guidance mainly enshrined in Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries was then analyzed together with ethical matrix developed for performance evalution, before specific discussion on the ethical dimension in China’s modern fisheries and aquaculture governance. China is the home of the largest number of both fishing vessels and fishermen, and is the only major country where the total output of aquaculture products exceeds that of fishing harvest, making its fisheries and aquaculture management more complicated than that of any other country in the world. Such a scenario requires a unique set of social and ecological ethics tailored for its governance. It is found that China’s traditional ecological wisdom contains rich ethical elements; and there exist ethical challenges in effectively addressing the social problems in China’s Three Fisheries and Aquaculture Issues, namely, the issues concerning the industry, villages and fishermen/aquaculture farmers. China shall further clarify the value scale and ethical foundation of fisheries and aquaculture. The study aims at promoting a sustainable conservation and development outlook in accordance with China’s conditions, in an effort to truly realize the "integration of nature and man" and coordinated development in this sector.