Polluting the environment causes economic losses of 3 billion yuan in the fishery industry every year in China, according to a report on fishery environment released Friday.

The report, jointly released by the Ministry of Agriculture and the State Environmental Protection Administration, noted that water pollution is getting more and more severe in China's fishery bases.

Major pollutants include nutritious salt, organism, petroleum and heavy metals, said the report.

It noted that the environment in the far sea areas are better protected than in the near sea and estuary, where red tides occurred frequently in recent years.

Uncompleted statistics show that in the past two years, China suffered 2,076 cases of fishery water pollution, causing direct losses of 1.06 billion yuan.

China is now the world's largest aquatic products manufacturer, with total output of 42.79 million tons in 2000.