Sea ice threatens China's ships and fishermen

The worst sea ice in 30 years is threatening shipping and the livelihoods of fishermen on China's eastern coast.

Floating chunks of ice off the eastern coast will continue to increase until the temperature warms between Saturday (Jan 16) and next Tuesday (Jan 19), according to China's National Marine Forecasting Station.

The sea ice is about 60 nautical miles (110 km) off the coast of Liaodong Bay, Liu Yu, the station's chief forecaster said.

The floating chunks of ice extended up to 44 km in Baohai Bay, 48 km in Laizhou Bay and 41 km in the northern Yellow Sea, he said. Offshore drilling platforms have been threatened by the ice, and some in Liaodong Bay have stopped working.

Around 500 fishing boats have been caught in the ice in Laizhou Bay, local fisherman Sun Wenliang said.

In Jinan, capital of Shandong province, the local government has helped around 2,000 fishing boats return safely.

Liu noted that the worst sea ice in the past 30 years began to appear in early January along the coastline of the Bohai Sea and the northern Yellow Sea as cold fronts pushed the temperature down to minus 10 C and below.