A Bilateral Network of Marine Protected Areas between Vietnam and China: An Alternative to the Chinese Unilateral Fishing Ban in the South China Sea?, by Hai-Dang Vu

Since 1999, China has enacted an annual fishing ban for two or three months in the summer in the North-Western part of the South China Sea. This year (2011), the ban took place from May 16th to August the 1st and in an area between the latitude 12° North to the North and longitude 113° East to the West.[1]Any fishing vessel that goes into this area during the banis subjected to fines and its catches and gear confiscated.[2]According to Chinese news and scholars, this fishing ban is necessary to protect...