The impact of the COVID-19 on China's fisheries sector and its countermeasures

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected China's economic development, international exchanges and other aspects to varying degrees, among which the impact on China's fishery development should not be underestimated. The fishery is a traditional and vast industry in China. The ongoing COVID-19 outbreak has also exposed potential problems in China's fishery development, such as the lack of specialised aquatic product quality and safety supervision and testing institutions. New problems have also arisen, such as the decline in the market demand for fish and aquatic products, affecting fishers' income, livelihood and so on. These deficiencies require China to establish a matching legal system to correspondingly solve the current legal and political problems. This paper will systematically discuss the impact of the COVID-19 on China's fisheries sector from the perspectives of ‘fishers’ and ‘aquatic products’ after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and analyse how to deal with various problems by referring to relevant experience in light of China's national conditions and characteristics.