 Most of the range support boats in the PLAN also shoulder the responsibility of inshore surveying and these converted boats are no exceptions, despite the little scientific instruments they carried.The reason is that originally, majority of the hydrographic surveys were conducted by civilian fishing vessels with the additional scientific equipment, naval and governmental crews on board.However, since the Chinese economic reform and the depletion of the fishery resources, the civilian fishing vessels must venture much further out into open ocean and staying longer at the sea, thus could no longer afford to stay in home waters and performing the heavy inshore surveying duties previously assigned under the planned economy era in China prior to the Chinese economic reform.