About 8.3 billion tonnes of sewage from 82 sources were discharged into the ocean off the coast of Guangdong last year, up 60 percent from five years ago, the report said.

Pollutants such as inorganic nitrogen, phosphate and petroleum were boosting the number of harmful "red tides," or algae blooms, that suck the oxygen out of the water and leave coastal zones of dead fish and other species, it said.

"It's an inevitable result of economic growth," the paper quoted a researcher surnamed Zhang at the Guangdong Ocean University as saying.

"Local governments have always pursued economic growth at the expense of the environment, no matter if it is land or sea."

Pollutants harming fisheries as well as water used for drinking and irrigation included lead, copper, cadmium, mercury and arsenic, it said.

Waters around 13 coastal cities along the Pearl river estuary were categorised as "seriously polluted," it added.

Guangdong province, which borders the former British colony of Hong Kong, has been traditionally known as China's "land of rice and fish."

But following 25 years of booming economic growth, the province has become the factory floor of the nation's export-oriented economy, with thousands of plants filling the once fertile Pearl river delta.

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