On July 16, around 1,000 fishermen and visitors gathered for a grand sea sacrificial ceremony at the Erzuizi and Chenjia fishing ports in Dalian's Lushunkou to mark this year’s Fishermen Festival.

Local officials and fisher folks released over 600,000 fish seeds after the ceremony.

In recent years, the Lushunkou Ocean and Fisheries Bureau has been promoting ocean protection awareness, boosting marine economy and ecological civilization construction. 

A total of 11 sea areas opened to the public, offering people more places to get close to the sea. The Bureau also quickened the marine ecological restoration program to provide sea creatures with a stronger environment. Statistics show that 431 million prawn seeds and 2.16 million fish seeds[Have what? Been released? Have been found following the changes? explain] have been released to rivers this year.

With more than 1,000 years of history, the fishermen festival, which falls on the thirteenth day every June, is a traditional fete for local fisher folks in Dalian to make sacrificial offerings to sea.

In a bid to boost tourism amid a 3-month fishing ban (which lasted till September 1st), Dalian approved the festival as the fourth batch of intangible cultural heritages in December 2010. It is aiming to brand the traditional event as an attraction combining folk customs, marine culture and leisure tourism.

Fish seeds are kept in bags before release. [Photo/Xinhua]

Dragon dance performance at the ceremony. [Photo/Xinhua]

An official announces the opening of the Fishermen Festival. [Photo/Xinhua]