The Border Control Bureau of the municipal police announced on Tuesday the promulgation of Regulations for Maintaining Shanghai Coastal Border which will go into effect as of March 1 this year. Police officers will be required to sit exams on the new regulations.

"They are much-needed judging from the state of border management in recent years," said Chao Wenjian, head of the bureau.

Shanghai was one of the last of the coastal provinces and municipalities to draw up regulations in the country, he said.

The regulations will be applied to 445 kilometres of coast including Baoshan District, Pudong New Area, Jinshan District, Chongming County, Fengxian County and Nanhui County.

Major work in controlling the coastal border will include management of fishing boats and fishermen, management of fishing licences, registration, exit and entry documents, security check and handling of criminal activities.

After military forces guarding the coastal areas were withdrawn in 1985, local police have since been responsible for the control of the coastal border areas.

However the lack of regulations made the work difficult.

For instance, each spring a lot of fishing boats from other provinces gather at the mouth of the Yangtze River to catch eels, a very lucrative business.

Many of the fishing boats don't have fishing permits.

In addition to the intense competition that arises for the limited number of eels, sometimes disputes erupt into armed fighting among the fishermen.

The regulations will authorize the coastal border police to use more powerful weapons in dealing with such violence in the future.

Police say a crackdown on illegal trafficking of goods resulted in the confiscation of 13,000 cartons of cigarettes, eight cars, and 15 containers of goods last year.

The police also rooted out several "stand-over" gangs from Jinshan District and Chongming County who had established virtual monopoly control over the sales of fish in those areas.