Experts here say Chinese fish farmers often turn to illegal veterinary drugs because they can help keep fish alive in overcrowded fish ponds that are sometimes tainted by sewage, agricultural runoff and industrial chemicals.
Regulators say that over the last year, more than 30,000 inspectors have fanned out across the country, working to close shoddy seafood operations and enforce regulations against the use of banned antibiotics, like chloramphenicol and malachite green, which is thought to cause cancer. But officials from the ministry’s fisheries bureau also say that pollution and water quality problems are e now the biggest challenges facing the nation’s fish farming or aquaculture industry, something they have rarely acknowledged in public.