Photo taken on January 22, 2010 shows the sea ice on the seashore in Xingcheng, northeast China's Liaoning Province. As cold fronts pushed temperatures below minus 10 degrees Celsius, the acreage of sea ice in Bohai Sea and Huanghai Sea increased to 41312 square meters on Friday, 6612 square meters larger than one day before. This is the worst sea ice ever in the past 40 years and it's set to worsen until this Febrary, according to National Marine Environmental Forcasting Center. [Xinhua]

The worst sea ice in east China's Bohai Sea over the past four decades continued to expand and has covered 45 percent of the waters of Bohai, the National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center (NMEFC) said on Friday.

The ice coverage was 40 percent a week ago.

According to the analysis by remote sensing, about 9,441 square kilometers of the Bohai Bay had iced up by Friday, accounting for almost 60 percent of the entire area of the bay.

Bohai Sea, due to its proximity to China's capital Beijing, is one of the busiest seaways in the world.

The sea ice appeared early January along the coasts of the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea as cold fronts pushed temperatures below minus 10 degrees Celsius, according to the station.

The sea ice has caused more than 1 billion yuan (about US$146 million) of losses to the fishing industry in Shandong Province, local marine and fishery department said Thursday.

The ice has also affected marine transport, fishing, aquatic breeding and offshore mining in northeast China's Liaoning Province, north China's Hebei Province and Tianjin Municipality.

The NMEFC forecasts that the ice could worsen in the next few days in the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea.

Photo taken on January 22, 2010 shows the sea ice on the seashore in Xingcheng, northeast China's Liaoning Province.  [Xinhua]