Chinese Fishing Fleet Plundered Waters Near Galapagos Islands

People began reporting a massive fishing fleet near the Galapagos Islands this summer, and still much is unknown about its activities in the area. The islands are a designated Unesco World Heritage site but Chinese officials are claiming the fishing fleet is operating just outside the protected border.

Residents of the Galapagos only became aware of the fishing fleet after plastic water bottles began washing up on their shores.

The fleet is estimated to have as many as 300 vessells and first showed up in the waters outside the Galapagos in June. The armed forces of Ecuador are noting that 149 vessels in the fleet have turned off their mandatory tracking systems, however. This prevents anyone from discovering if the vessels have moved into protected areas or are engaging in illegal fishing operations.

Ambassador Chen Guoyou of the Chinese embassy to Ecuador has said that all the vessels are abiding by international law and not entering the protected space. He says that some vessels have lost satellite signals but are otherwise using their tracking systems.

“Except for some delays or temporary loss of satellite signal, all Chinese ships keep operating and using monitoring systems normally,” he said to Ecuador’s congress. He also noted that the vessels are looking for squid and are ensuring protected marine species in the area are not being harmed as bycatch.

“The operating characteristics of squid fishing boats do not allow the incidental capture of sharks and other protected marine species,” he said. “China is a major fishing nation … and it is also a responsible fishing nation.”

Satellite information provided by Hawkeye 360 suggests that some of the boats have entered restricted waters, however. The company sent out a press release noting that they monitored the activities of the fishing fleet throughout the summer and found hundreds of instances of boats entering protected waters.

Hawkeye360/YouTube

“During a six-week period from mid-July to the end of August, HawkEye 360 compared its geolocations against AIS data to filter out vessels that were routinely reporting their locations,” the press release stated. “The remaining hundreds of geoloca­tions indicated previously unknown vessel positions. Of greatest concern, HawkEye 360 discovered multiple instances of RF activity within the EEZ immediately adjacent to the heart of the Chinese fishing fleet. None of these locations correlated with AIS records for the entire day when they were detected.”

Milko Schvartzman with the Argentine organization Circle of Environmental Policies has been tracking Chinese fishing fleets for years. He is worried about the socioeconomic issues that this issue will create in Ecuador due to the high-cost of patrolling the waters.

“That’s a big problem,” Schvartzman said. “[It costs] millions of dollars from the local economies to deploy vessels to the area. They turn off their systems because they want to cover what they are doing … and that shows how the Chinese fleet operates.”

Related Content:

• Justice for Sharks! Historic Verdict in the Galapagos Islands
• Ban Wild Animal Circuses and End Swimming With Dolphins: 10 Petitions You Should Sign This Week to Help Animals!
• 10 Incredible Places Across the World Where You Can Observe Animals in Their Natural Habitat
• What It’s Like to Bust an Illegal Fishing Operation to Help Save Endangered Sharks
• What Are the Global Consequences of Overfishing and Why Should You Care
• 10 Alarming Facts About Overfishing