China, U.S. make "fantastic progress" on ocean cooperation: U.S. official

China and the United States have made "really fantastic progress" during the bilateral ocean meeting, a U.S.official said here on Wednesday.

"I am really very happy to have the opportunity to talk to all of you about the really fantastic progress we have made during our ocean session at the (seventh China-U.S.) Strategic and Economic Dialogue (SED) that we've being conducting with China here," said Catherine Novelli, U.S. under secretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment.

To have healthy oceans for future, China and the United States have to work together to combat the huge challenges that the oceans are facing including over-fishing, pollution and ocean acidification, Novelli told a press briefing on the second day of the two-day SED.

"I think we are very much on the same page with China on all over these large goals," she said, as the United States and China are two of the world's top three fishing nations in terms of capture production and importers of fish.

China and the United States have made progress on several things, for example, controlling marine litter, combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, expanding cooperation among both countries' maritime enforcement authorities etc., according to the U.S. Department of State.

Novelli said China and the United States will take further steps to implement those agreements through "phone calls, through video conferences and through actual meetings both bilaterally and multilaterally." Endi