Recently, the Wenchang Municipal Comprehensive Administrative Law Enforcement Bureau issued a Reply on Assistance in the Evaluation of Fishing Nets to the Wenchang First Work Station of Haikou Coast Guard, which provided evaluation opinions regarding the fishing nets used in an illegal fishing activity. It was the first time the administrative organ had provided assistance pursuant to the Opinions on the Establishment of Work Mechanism for Connecting Administrative and Criminal Procedures for Cases involving Damage to Marine Ecological Resources and Environment (the “Opinions”). It took only two days for the law enforcement bureau to accept the request and make reply, without incurring a charge. The mechanism has provided a good solution to the handling of this type of cases, which used to entail a lengthy and expensive evaluation procedure.

The Opinions was drafted by the Haikou Maritime Court following more than half a year’s in-depth research and extensive consultation. On October 23, 2023, the Haikou Maritime Court, the First Branch of People’s Procuratorate of Hainan Province, the Haikou Coast Guard, the Haikou Municipal Comprehensive Administrative Law Enforcement Bureau, and the Wenchang Municipal Comprehensive Administrative Law Enforcement Bureau jointly signed the Opinions. It is a fresh result of the “Three in One” maritime trial reform and brings benefits from the following perspectives:  

1. It establishes a principle that the identification (evaluation) of items involved in cases should be primarily based on the investigation, inspection and measurement opinions of the administrative law enforcement organs and supplemented by the expert evaluation opinions of professional institutes. It has helped cut both time and expense of evaluation procedure for cases involving damage to marine ecological resources and environment.

2. It delimits the standard for the transfer of suspected criminal cases and the authority of the procuratorate to supervise the transfer of cases, which resolves the disagreement between the maritime administrative law enforcement organs and criminal investigation organs regarding the standard for transfer of cases.  

3. It introduces a law supervision procedure for the return of cases for administrative penalty, which helps solve the problem of absence of supervision when the procuratorate returns a case found without involvement of criminal offence for further handling by the administrative organ to impose administrative penalty.

The enforcement of the Opinions streamlines the transfer and handling of cases involving damage to the marine ecological resources and environment, and provides solid support for law-based governance for the protection of the marine ecological environment and fishing resources of Hainan province.