Monday marks both World Oceans Day and China’s National Ocean Awareness Day. Since joining the Agreement on Port State Measures (PSMA), China has honored its commitments, and implementation of the agreement has gotten off to a strong start, some participants said at a themed event on the agreement held in Shanghai on June 5, the United Nations (UN)-designated International Day for the Fight against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing.

The "10th Anniversary Ceremony of the FAO Agreement on Port State Measures and Launch of the Event Series on Global Marine Fisheries Governance and Development" is held at Shanghai Ocean University on June 5, 2026.

The “10th Anniversary Ceremony of the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) Agreement on Port State Measures and Launch of the Event Series on Global Marine Fisheries Governance and Development” was held on June 5 at Shanghai Ocean University (SHOU), bringing together industry experts and scholars, representatives of distant-water fishing enterprises, and foreign diplomats in Shanghai.

PSMA, led by the FAO of the UN, is a key global treaty on marine fisheries governance. It aims to prevent illegally caught fish from entering markets through ports by effectively implementing Port State Measures, thereby ensuring the long-term conservation and sustainable use of marine living resources and marine ecosystems.

In April 2025, PSMA formally entered into force for China, making the country an important party to this agreement.

Joining the agreement has imposed stricter regulatory requirements on the entry and exit of vessels operated by Chinese distant-water fishing companies, as well as on inspections and checks at ports, said some Chinese distant-water fishing firms attending the event.

“Our vessels are equipped with 24-hour satellite tracking systems throughout operations, so their locations can be checked at any time. In the fishing process, we strictly implement conservation and management measures and catch only licensed species,” Deng Hu, executive vice president of Shanghai Kai Chuang Marine International Co., Ltd., told the Global Times.

“We are deeply familiar with the compliance rules of coastal and resource states, and we strictly abide by domestic fisheries laws and regulations, international conventions, and the relevant rules of regional fisheries management organizations,” he said.

At the ceremony, Xia Liang, an expert at China’s national contact point for the PSMA and a professor at SHOU, outlined China’s progress in fulfilling its obligations since joining the agreement last year.

Over the past year, China has completed corresponding revisions to its fisheries law, adding legal provisions such as advance reporting for foreign fishing vessels entering ports and on-site port inspections, and has also strengthened interdepartmental law-enforcement coordination, making the country’s compliance system increasingly robust, Xia said. “We are striving to contribute China’s wisdom and strength to improving the level and effectiveness of global fisheries governance,” he said.

As of now, PSMA has 85 parties that cover 111 countries, accounting for roughly three fourths of the world’s coastal states.

As a major global producer and consumer of aquatic products, China’s formal accession to the PSMA is a milestone move that has significantly enhanced the effectiveness of the agreement, and represents a concrete step in China’s practice of multilateralism and its vision of building a maritime community with a shared future, said Tang Yi, an attending scholar and a professor at SHOU.

“This demonstrates China’s sense of responsibility as a major country in actively assuming obligations for global marine ecological governance,” Tang told the Global Times.

The Friday ceremony was hosted by SHOU. At the event, Matthew Camilleri, head of the FAO PSMA Secretariat, briefed participants via video on the achievements of the agreement over the past decade.