忧郁的渤海

The Suffering Bohai

人类是依靠破坏其生存所必不可少的环境而生活的惟一有机体。 ——美国学者福格特 在我们居住的这颗蓝色星球上,海水覆盖面积约为3.61亿平方公里,占地球表面积的71％。海洋给人类提供的食物能量,等于陆地上所有耕地产品的1000倍,已被世界公认为人类未来的“第二故乡”。 “日月之行,若出其中;星汉灿烂,若出其里。”

Bohai is the only inland sea of China, almost sealed off, with an area of 78,000 square kilometers and a slim capability to take in the pollution; however each year it has to take 2800m tons of polluted water from the land, causing about 60% of its area being contaminated, so it is pressing on towards a 'dead sea'.Shipbuilding along the coast of the Bohai is regaining strength. Oil tankers, container ships and hi-tech vessels are most welcome by foreign customers. The first VLCC built by China has commenced in Dalian New Shipyard. However, due to the depressed domestic shipping, demand on new vessels is not very good and some shipyards turn to offshore engineering and ship repair for better business.Shipping enterprises along the coastline of the Bohai area are both pleased and worried. Pleased because of good availability of ports in some areas and worried due to inadequate sense of service from the shipping administrations in other areas. The Bohai, with passenger ro/ro ships as the main type trading on it, is not yet free from safety risks though efforts on improvement have been made several times since the marine accident taking place on November 24 last year. This year the flow of passengers on Bohai has increased by 5% over last year, the turnouts for shipping companies could only be equal to those of the previous year.