Actual Costs of Uneconomic Growth of Marine Fisheries in China’s Pearl River Delta

Abstract

As traditional economic theory is mainly based on neoliberal principles, whose failure is to ignore the ecological component in value assessment methods, it assumes that continuous economic growth exists with high level of employment and low inflation rate. Many ecological economists have criticized the blind pursuit of short-term economic interests in the last 30 years for leading to loss of natural capital and ecosystem services. This study demonstrates the concept of "uneconomic growth" by measuring the actual costs of fishing activities and fishery policy implemented in China's Pearl River Estuary from economic, social, and ecological aspects. The results show that the costs of economic growth exceed the benefits of additional growth because of the limits of the ecosystem. The ecological system of the Pearl River Estuary has been degraded significantly by overfishing and is regarded to be under non-optimal conditions regarding both ecological and socio-economic objectives.

Nutrient Pollution and Its Dynamic Source-Sink Pattern in the Pearl River Estuary (South China)

“…These nitrogen deviations in the east and west PRE suggested different degrees of active internal N cycling, as discussed in other studies (Chai et al, 2006(Chai et al, , 2009Wu et al, 2016). The DIP removal was mainly induced by the biological response and adsorption on the suspended particles, while the P sink was likely due to the P replenishment (as in the middle estuary) and fertilizers in the agricultural applications (Li et al, 2017;Wang, 2018).…”

Ecosystem-based fisheries management in the Pearl River Delta: Applying a computable general equilibrium model

“…However, with the rapid population growth in the PRD and the increasing consumption of food, the pressure on fishery resources has increased [12]. Consequently, the PRD is facing a double crisis of economic rents dissipation and resource depletion, which is a quintessential example of non-economic growth [26]. The Chinese government has played a key role in promoting the sustainable exploitation of marine fishery in the PRD by implementing multiple fishery management policies, including a range of input controls, output controls, technical control instruments, and other economic measures [27][28][29].…”