China has pledged to build a stronger fleet of fishery administration ships with higher tonnage in a bid to better safeguard its sea territory and fishermen.

The vow came as the country's fastest fishery administration vessel, China Yuzheng 310, made its maiden voyage from Guangzhou on Tuesday to cruise around the East China Sea waters near the Diaoyu Islands.

The 2,580-ton vessel, with a highest speed of 22 nautical miles (40.7 kilometers) per hour and a cruising radius of 6,000 nautical miles, can carry 56 people aboard and sail 60 days nonstop.

Equipped with modern communication apparatus and a Z-9A helicopter, the vessel is the third official Chinese ship that has been sent to the Diaoyu Islands since the country normalized its cruise to protect Chinese fishermen operating around the area.

Two months ago, a Chinese trawler collided with two Japanese coast guard vessels near the Diaoyu Islands, sparking a major row between the two countries.

A spokesman for the Fishery Administration under the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) told China Daily on Tuesday that China is facing challenges to patrol its sea territory for law enforcement.

"The task of Chinese fishery administration ships is becoming more arduous, including protecting sea territory, securing natural resources, and safeguarding fishing boats," he said.

Over recent years, there have been a growing number of cases of Chinese fishermen being illegally detained by foreign navy and foreign fishermen illegally encroaching upon China's traditional fishing area.

"We are in need of more higher-tonnage fishery administration vessels, which can help boost our law enforcement capabilities," he said.

Fishery administration vessels of more than 1,000 tons are regarded as high-tonnage ships in China.

At present, a total of 1,382 fishery administration ships have been put to sea, but only nine of them are more than 1,000 tons, statistics from MOA showed.

China plans to build three to five 3,000-ton fishery patrol ships in the next five years, fishery administration officials said earlier.

Huang Zuoping, vice-director of the executive office of the South China Sea Fishery Bureau of MOA, told China Daily that compared to the broad waters, the current fishery administration ships are quite insufficient and with rather low cruising intensity.

"Our bureau now has only five large ships with tonnage over 1000 to cruise around the South China Sea, which covers around 3 million square kilometers, almost three times the total of the other three seas - the Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea," he said.

Wang Hanling, an expert on maritime laws with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the huge gap between China's vast maritime jurisdiction zone and its backward administrative capability has been thoroughly exposed in recent disputes.

"In the South China Sea, our administrative vessels can't catch the Vietnamese ships fishing illegally," he said.

(China Daily November 17, 2010)