The Yangtze River delta in east China now contributes about 20% of the country's total output of aquatic products, realising an integration of market, entertainment and processing.

The area has basically formed a pattern of labour division and cooperation. Shanghai, Zhejiang and Jiangsu have different focuses for their local fisheries developments. Shanghai attaches high importance to the optimisation and upgrading of its aquatic product marketing system; Zhejiang is making strenuous efforts to develop the intensive processing of aquatic products; and Jiangsu is actively developing a fishery centralising on entertainment and tourism.

In this way, the development of these three regions is increasingly complementing one another.

The Yangtze River Delta now produces about nine million tonnes of aquatic products each year, nearly 20% of the country's total 50 million tonnes. The area's consumption of aquatic products is more than five million tonnes annually.

Shanghai is working to build an aquatic product market system connecting the fishery production and the sales market. Meanwhile, Shanghai is strengthening its supervision over aquatic product quality to ensure food safety.

In Zhejiang, companies engaged in aquatic products processing are stepping into high-end processing from the original low-value and low-end processing. Zhejiang endeavours to build more famous brands in the local aquatic product processing industry.

Jiangsu, as the traditional back garden of Shanghai, is actively developing leisure fishery. Numerous leisure fishery bases have been built in Jiangsu, focusing on different aspects of fishing including aquatic products catering, leisure fishing, fishery tourism, and fish appreciation.

Right now, there have been around 2,000 companies engaged in leisure fishery in Jiangsu with the total investment exceeding RMB3.4 billion (US$0.5 billion) and annual net revenue reaching RMB2.4 billion (US$0.35 billion).