Commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture, from February 5 to 9, the Chinese delegation,composed of associate professor Zhu Jiangfeng from the College of MarineScience, associate professor Lv Ming from the College of Marine Culture and Lawand members of Chinese Pelagic Fishery Association, hadbeen visiting Seychelles, and attending the fourth meeting of theSub-commission on Allocation of Fishing Quota and the first meeting of theSub-commission on Performance Appraisal of IOTC.

The meeting ofthe Sub-commission on Allocation of Fishing Quota, held from February 5 to 7,hadbeen mainly focusing on two proposals on allocation of fishing quota submittedrespectively by the EU and 16 coastal states bordering the Indian Ocean, andunfolding their discussions around these two proposals. The meeting of theSub-commission on Performance Appraisal, held from February 8 to 9, had been mainlydiscussing whether IOTC should separate itself from the operation of the UnitedNations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and run independently.

At the meeting onallocation of fishing quota, representatives of 21 contracting parties (includingChinese representatives) deliberated in details the texts of the two proposals,passionately offered their views, and engaged in heated exchanges; the Chinesedelegation also expressed its views about some important technical issues.During the break, our delegation also held a joint group meeting with the EU,Japan, South Korea and other pelagic fishery parties, exchanged opinions withthem, and received affirmation and praise from them. At the performanceappraisal meeting, representatives listened to the appraisal report of independentexperts on the influence of IOTC separating itself from FAO, discussed thethree solutions proposed in this report, and came up with a specific revisionplan.

During themeetings, two teacher representatives of SHOU actively offered advice forsafeguarding the rights and interests of the Chinese fishery, exchangedopinions with representatives of the EU, South Korea, Australia and othercontracting parties, and got to know the attitudes and standpoints of variousparties on critical interest points. This not only provided substantial supportand preparations for the negotiation of our government delegation at the coming22nd Conference of the Parties of IOTC, butalso expanded the popularity of SHOU.