Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 25 of 31
  1. #1
    Thailand Expat tomcat's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    17,216

    Rapacious Chinese Fishing Fleet Threatens Galapagos

    Alarm over discovery of hundreds of Chinese fishing vessels near Galápagos Islands

    Dan Collyns in Lima
    July 28, 2020, 7:01 AM

    Ecuador has sounded the alarm after its navy discovered a huge fishing fleet of mostly Chinese-flagged vessels some 200 miles from the Galápagos Islands, the archipelago which inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.

    About 260 ships are currently in international waters just outside a 188-mile wide exclusive economic zone around the island, but their presence has already raised the prospect of serious damage to the delicate marine ecosystem, said former environment minister Yolanda Kakabadse.

    “This fleet’s size and aggressiveness against marine species is a big threat to the balance of species in the Galápagos,” she told the Guardian.
    Kakabadse and an ex-mayor of Quito, Roque Sevilla, were on Monday put in charge of designing a “protection strategy” for the islands, which lie 563 miles west of the South American mainland.

    Chinese fishing vessels come every year to the seas around the Galápagos, which were declared a Unesco world heritage site in 1978, but this year’s fleet is one of the largest seen in recent years.

    Sevilla said that diplomatic efforts would be made to request the withdrawal of the Chinese fishing fleet. “Unchecked Chinese fishing just on the edge of the protected zone is ruining Ecuador’s efforts to protect marine life in the Galápagos,” he said.

    He added that the team would also seek to enforce international agreements that protect migratory species. The Galápagos Marine Reserve has one of the world’s greatest concentrations of shark species, including endangered whale and hammerhead varieties.

    Kakabadse said efforts also would be made to extend the exclusive economic zone to a 350-mile circumference around the islands which would join up with the Ecuadorean mainland’s economic zone, closing off a corridor of international waters in between the two where the Chinese fleet is currently located.

    Ecuador is also trying to establish a corridor of marine reserves between Pacific-facing neighbours Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia which would seal off important areas of marine diversity, Kakabadse said.
    Ecuador’s president Lenín Moreno described the archipelago as “one of the richest fishing areas and a seedbed of life for the entire planet”, in a message on Twitter over the weekend.

    The Galápagos Islands are renowned for their unique plants and wildlife. Unesco describes the archipelago – visited by a quarter of a million tourists every year – as a “living museum and a showcase for evolution”.

    The Ecuadorean navy has been monitoring the fishing fleet since it was spotted last week, according to the country’s defence minister Oswaldo Jarrín. “We are on alert, (conducting) surveillance, patrolling to avoid an incident such as what happened in 2017,” he said.

    The 2017 incident he referred to was the capture by the Ecuadorean navy within the Galápagos Marine Reserve of a Chinese vessel. The Fu Yuan Yu Leng 999, part of an even larger fleet than the current one, was found to be carrying 300 tonnes of marine wildlife, mostly sharks.
    “We were appalled to discover that a massive Chinese industrial fishing fleet is currently off the Galápagos Islands,” said John Hourston, a spokesman for the Blue Planet Society, a NGO which campaigns against over-fishing.
    Majestically enthroned amid the vulgar herd

  2. #2
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    96,555
    Torpedo the fuckers.

    Rapacious Chinese Fishing Fleet Threatens Galapagos-seized_sharks2_1000-jpg

    In 2017 they caught the chinkies with 200,000 shark fins, and 300 tons of rare or endangered shark, because they've destroyed their own fish stocks.

    This is what they do. Complete marine destruction to make some sloppy soup that they probably think makes their tiny little dicks bigger.

    Fucking chinky parasites.

  3. #3
    Thailand Expat VocalNeal's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Last Online
    Yesterday @ 10:48 PM
    Location
    The Kingdom of Lanna
    Posts
    12,992
    Aussie's have HMAS Darwin. Ecuadorians should officially ask for help?

    In nautical terms 200 miles is very close to the 188 mile exclusion zone.

  4. #4
    I'm in Jail

    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Last Online
    14-12-2023 @ 11:54 AM
    Location
    Australia
    Posts
    13,986
    About 260 ships are currently in international waters just outside a 188-mile wide exclusive economic zone.


    And these are not small ships, if they have made it across the Pacific.

    Strafe the arrogant pricks.

  5. #5
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    96,555
    Quote Originally Posted by VocalNeal View Post
    Aussie's have HMAS Darwin. Ecuadorians should officially ask for help?

    In nautical terms 200 miles is very close to the 188 mile exclusion zone.
    Why Australia?

    The US is nearer and it would piss of the chinkies much more.

  6. #6
    Thailand Expat tomcat's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    17,216
    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    The US is nearer and it would piss of the chinkies much more.
    ..tRump has no interest in preserving fish stocks...nothing in it for him personally...

  7. #7
    Thailand Expat HermantheGerman's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Last Online
    27-03-2024 @ 05:25 AM
    Location
    Germany/Satthahip
    Posts
    6,675
    Can somebody come up with the a news that grasshopper are good for your penis.
    Set one swarm loose on the other

  8. #8
    Thailand Expat VocalNeal's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Last Online
    Yesterday @ 10:48 PM
    Location
    The Kingdom of Lanna
    Posts
    12,992
    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    Why Australia?

    The US is nearer and it would piss of the chinkies much more.
    Because the islands are Galapagos and the ship is called Darwin? Maybe Americans or Ecuadorians don't think he made the island famous?

  9. #9
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    96,555
    Quote Originally Posted by VocalNeal View Post
    Because the islands are Galapagos and the ship is called Darwin? Maybe Americans or Ecuadorians don't think he made the island famous?
    Oh. I see.

  10. #10
    Thailand Expat jabir's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2016
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    12,009
    Roaches, burn resources fending off one invasion while they're swarming several others.

  11. #11
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    96,555
    Quote Originally Posted by jabir View Post
    Roaches, burn resources fending off one invasion while they're swarming several others.
    More like locusts.

  12. #12
    Thailand Expat
    panama hat's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Last Online
    21-10-2023 @ 08:08 AM
    Location
    Way, Way South of the border now - thank God!
    Posts
    32,680
    Slash and burn . . . and then? Retards

  13. #13
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Last Online
    Yesterday @ 08:43 PM
    Location
    Where troubles melt like lemon drops
    Posts
    25,222
    Ecuador monitoring fleet of fishing vessels near Galapagos

    Environment

    July 24, 2020 /
    6:36 AM / 9 days ago

    "Ecuador is monitoring a large fleet of fishing vessels, many of them Chinese, off the Galapagos Islands "

    "fishing vessels appear each year near the Galapagos"

    "
    “We are on alert, (conducting) surveillance, patrolling to avoid an incident such as what happened in 2017,” Defense Minister Oswaldo Jarrin told reporters.

    The Ecuadorian Navy has identified some 260 vessels in the vicinity of the Galapagos Islands’ exclusive economic zone.

    “There is a corridor that is international waters, that’s where the fleet is located,” said Jarrin, adding none had attempted to enter the exclusive economic zone. "

    Ecuador monitoring fleet of fishing vessels near Galapagos - Reuters



    Quote Originally Posted by tomcat View Post


    Rapacious Chinese Fishing Fleet Threatens Galapagos
    Alarm over discovery of hundreds of Chinese fishing vessels near Galápagos Islands


    Dan Collyns in Lima
    July 28, 2020, 7:01 AM
    Alarm over discovery of hundreds of Chinese fishing vessels near Galapagos Islands | Environment | The Guardian

    Quote Originally Posted by tomcat View Post
    a huge fishing fleet of mostly Chinese-flagged vessels
    Quote Originally Posted by tomcat View Post
    ships are currently in international waters just outside a 188-mile wide exclusive economic zone around the island,
    Quote Originally Posted by tomcat View Post
    fishing vessels come every year
    Quote Originally Posted by tomcat View Post
    efforts also would be made to extend the exclusive economic zone to a 350-mile circumference around the islands
    Quote Originally Posted by tomcat View Post
    “We were appalled to discover that a massive Chinese industrial fishing fleet is currently off the Galápagos Islands
    Quote Originally Posted by tomcat View Post
    Kakabadse and an ex-mayor of Quito, Roque Sevilla, were on Monday put in charge of designing a “protection strategy” for the islands, which lie 563 miles west of the South American mainland.
    Two reports of the same news item. One from Reuters and one from Guardian.

    Subtle differences:

    Article titles:


    "Ecuador is monitoring a large fleet of fishing vessels" or "Rapacious Chinese Fishing Fleet Threatens Galapagos"

    Ships flags:

    "many" (<50%) or "mostly" (> 50%)?

    Sources

    "Defense Minister Oswaldo Jarrin told reporters." or " former environment minister Yolanda Kakabadse and an ex-mayor of Quito, Roque Sevilla, were on Monday put in charge of designing a “protection strategy”

    Possible extension of the Economic Zone

    "a corridor that is international waters, that’s where the fleet is located,”

    Should "exceptional" countries be awarded a larger Economic Zone and if so who determines the list of "exceptional" countries. Should all adopt the UNCLOS agreement or adopt a "rules based" decision, unilaterally adopted by countries outside any UN agreed definition?

    Random commentator:


    "We were appalled to discover"

    Does the spokesman quote the Reuter's article or the Guardian's attention grabbing headlines. This year's numbers or historic records?

    It appears many rely on the word "Chinese" rather than facts to determine their bias.
    A tray full of GOLD is not worth a moment in time.

  14. #14
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    96,555
    We all know the chinkies are dying to get into those waters.

    It's where hundreds of thousands of Hammerhead Sharks can be found, and the chinkies would love nothing more than to lop off their dorsal fins and throw them back in the sea to die, just so they can make their stupid soup.

    Torpedo the fuckers.

  15. #15
    Thailand Expat

    Join Date
    Nov 2017
    Last Online
    29-11-2023 @ 01:10 PM
    Posts
    1,815
    In a caring, sensitive and culturally appropriate way of course.

  16. #16
    Thailand Expat tomcat's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    17,216
    Quote Originally Posted by docmartin View Post
    In a caring, sensitive and culturally appropriate way of course.
    ...nah, don't even stick around to pick up the floating crews...let the hammerheads sort them out...

  17. #17
    last farang standing
    Hugh Cow's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Last Online
    15-03-2024 @ 01:44 PM
    Location
    Qld/Bangkok
    Posts
    4,110
    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    Ecuador monitoring fleet of fishing vessels near Galapagos

    Environment

    July 24, 2020 /
    6:36 AM / 9 days ago

    "Ecuador is monitoring a large fleet of fishing vessels, many of them Chinese, off the Galapagos Islands "

    "fishing vessels appear each year near the Galapagos"

    "
    “We are on alert, (conducting) surveillance, patrolling to avoid an incident such as what happened in 2017,” Defense Minister Oswaldo Jarrin told reporters.

    The Ecuadorian Navy has identified some 260 vessels in the vicinity of the Galapagos Islands’ exclusive economic zone.

    “There is a corridor that is international waters, that’s where the fleet is located,” said Jarrin, adding none had attempted to enter the exclusive economic zone. "

    Ecuador monitoring fleet of fishing vessels near Galapagos - Reuters





    Alarm over discovery of hundreds of Chinese fishing vessels near Galapagos Islands | Environment | The Guardian













    Two reports of the same news item. One from Reuters and one from Guardian.

    Subtle differences:

    Article titles:


    "Ecuador is monitoring a large fleet of fishing vessels" or "Rapacious Chinese Fishing Fleet Threatens Galapagos"

    Ships flags:

    "many" (<50%) or "mostly" (> 50%)?

    Sources

    "Defense Minister Oswaldo Jarrin told reporters." or " former environment minister Yolanda Kakabadse and an ex-mayor of Quito, Roque Sevilla, were on Monday put in charge of designing a “protection strategy”

    Possible extension of the Economic Zone

    "a corridor that is international waters, that’s where the fleet is located,”

    Should "exceptional" countries be awarded a larger Economic Zone and if so who determines the list of "exceptional" countries. Should all adopt the UNCLOS agreement or adopt a "rules based" decision, unilaterally adopted by countries outside any UN agreed definition?

    Random commentator:


    "We were appalled to discover"

    Does the spokesman quote the Reuter's article or the Guardian's attention grabbing headlines. This year's numbers or historic records?

    It appears many rely on the word "Chinese" rather than facts to determine their bias.
    Maybe you could enlighten us to the number and size of the chinese vessels and why they need to fish dso far away from their own waters. Could it be that they have devastated their own stocks by over fishing? They are not exactly known for their "green" environmental policies in relation to industry and food production.

  18. #18
    Thailand Expat
    panama hat's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Last Online
    21-10-2023 @ 08:08 AM
    Location
    Way, Way South of the border now - thank God!
    Posts
    32,680
    Quote Originally Posted by Hugh Cow View Post
    Maybe you could enlighten us to the number and size of the chinese vessels and why they need to fish dso far away from their own waters.
    Because they're greedy fu@kers . . . and :
    Quote Originally Posted by Hugh Cow View Post
    Could it be that they have devastated their own stocks by over fishing?

  19. #19
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Last Online
    Yesterday @ 08:43 PM
    Location
    Where troubles melt like lemon drops
    Posts
    25,222
    Quote Originally Posted by Hugh Cow View Post
    Maybe you could enlighten us tothe number and size of the chinese vessels
    I hope this clarifies the information already posted above, which you may have difficulties in understanding.

    Allegedly, according to one report, the fleet is::

    Quote Originally Posted by tomcat View Post
    mostly Chinese-flagged vessels
    e.g. "Shakespeare wrote mostly in verse."

    thus > 131.

    Another report suggests the fleet is:

    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    many of them
    e.g "Not many people have heard of him"

    Thus >1 and < 130

    You are free to choose which report to believe.

    Quote Originally Posted by Hugh Cow View Post
    they need to fish dso far away from their own waters
    The same reason many countries have ocean going fishing fleets, accessibility, available numbers of fish, fuel and crew costs, profits ....

    Quote Originally Posted by Hugh Cow View Post
    devastated their own stocks by over fishing
    Many countries fishing fleets catch fish in the SCS. Should one not include all of those countries into the "bag of blame".

    China has recently introduced stock management "rules" in it's portion of the SCS. Are the other countries fleets abiding by the Chinese "rules" or have they introduced and are abiding to, any similar "rules' they themselves have introduce, or not, in their own EZs?

    China and Vietnam have one agreement in place.

    Sino-Vietnamese Fishery Agreement in the Gulf of Tonkin |

    Quote Originally Posted by Hugh Cow View Post
    exactly known for their "green" environmental policies in relation to industry and food production
    Along with many who fail to meet internationally agreed standards as a Developed Country".

    Here are the categories utilised in deciding. Look at your own country and decide if it has accomplished their eradication:
    Urban slums

    Violence against womenPublic health

    Water, sanitation, hygiene (WASH)

    Energy

    Pollution

    Climate change

    Population growth

    However China is, one of ten countries, classed as a "newly industrialized country".

    There doesn't appear to be a list of "Developed Countries" which have slid back to such, or lower. designation, yet.

    Here is a link that illustrates why a country is thus classified:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developing_country#Measure_and_concept_of_developm ent



  20. #20
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Last Online
    Yesterday @ 08:43 PM
    Location
    Where troubles melt like lemon drops
    Posts
    25,222
    Quote Originally Posted by Hugh Cow View Post
    Maybe you could enlighten us tothe number and size of the chinese vessels
    I hope this clarifies the information already posted above, which you may have difficulties in understanding.

    Allegedly, according to one report, the fleet is::

    Quote Originally Posted by tomcat View Post
    mostly Chinese-flagged vessels
    e.g. "Shakespeare wrote mostly in verse."

    thus > 131.

    Another report suggests the fleet is:

    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    many of them
    e.g "Not many people have heard of him"

    Thus >1 and < 130

    You are free to choose which report to believe.

    Quote Originally Posted by Hugh Cow View Post
    they need to fish dso far away from their own waters
    The same reason many countries have ocean going fishing fleets, accessibility, available numbers of fish, fuel and crew costs, profits ....

    Quote Originally Posted by Hugh Cow View Post
    devastated their own stocks by over fishing
    Many countries fishing fleets catch fish in the SCS. Should one not include all of those countries into the "bag of blame".

    China has recently introduced stock management "rules" in it's portion of the SCS. Are the other countries fleets abiding by the Chinese "rules" or have they introduced and are abiding to, any similar "rules' they themselves have introduce, or not, in their own EZs?

    China and Vietnam have one agreement in place.

    Sino-Vietnamese Fishery Agreement in the Gulf of Tonkin |

    Quote Originally Posted by Hugh Cow View Post
    exactly known for their "green" environmental policies in relation to industry and food production
    Along with many others who fail to meet internationally agreed standards as a "Developed Country".

    Here are the categories utilised in deciding. Look at your own country and decide if it has accomplished their eradication:

    Urban slums

    Violence against women

    Public health


    Water, sanitation, hygiene (WASH)

    Energy

    Pollution

    Climate change


    Population growth

    However China is, one of ten countries, classed as a "newly industrialized country".

    There doesn't appear to be a list of "Developed Countries" which have slid back to such, or lower designation, yet.

    Here is a link that illustrates why a country is thus classified:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developing_country#Measure_and_concept_of_developm ent



  21. #21
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    96,555
    Fucking hell does he waffle or what.

    Meanwhile, here's a bit of chinky humour:


    China maintains that it is a “responsible fishing nation” with a “zero tolerance” policy toward illegal fishing.
    Har Har.

    Rapacious Chinese Fishing Fleet Threatens Galapagos-images-jpg

  22. #22
    Thailand Expat

    Join Date
    Nov 2017
    Last Online
    29-11-2023 @ 01:10 PM
    Posts
    1,815
    China maintains that it is a “responsible fishing nation” with a “zero tolerance” policy toward illegal fishing.

    My wife maintains that she is infallible.

  23. #23
    Thailand Expat
    panama hat's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Last Online
    21-10-2023 @ 08:08 AM
    Location
    Way, Way South of the border now - thank God!
    Posts
    32,680
    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    Public health
    Filthy fuckers . . . you grew up there, you should know

  24. #24
    En route
    Cujo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Last Online
    24-02-2024 @ 04:47 PM
    Location
    Reality.
    Posts
    32,939
    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    Filthy fuckers . . . you grew up there, you should know
    Actually he didn't. He did a little business here a few years ago. The'y kissed his ass and treated him to banquets and GAN BEI and he got sucked in by it, such is his simple mind. Keeping in mind that he was an anarchist youth before he got involved in business with Chinese which he saw as a great way to forward his anarchist ambitions.

    Anyway.
    The last paragraph of this sums it up nicely for me.

    “This is not fishing any more, it is simply destroying the resources of our oceans,” Green said. “We should ask whether any nation on this planet has the right to destroy what is common ground."

    A vast fishing armada off Ecuador’s biodiverse Pacific islands has stirred alarm over ‘indiscriminate’ fishing practices


    The Chinese reefer ship Fu Yuan Yu Leng 999 was intercepted inside the Galápagos marine reserve in 2017. It contained about 300 tonnes of mostly sharks, including protected species such as hammerhead and whale shark.
    The Chinese reefer ship Fu Yuan Yu Leng 999 was intercepted in the Galápagos marine reserve in 2017 with about 300 tonnes of mostly sharks, including protected species. Photograph: Archivo Parque Nacional Galápagos
    Jonathan Green had been tracking a whale shark named Hope across the eastern Pacific for 280 days when the satellite transmissions from a GPS tag on her dorsal fin abruptly stopped.


    It was not unusual for the GPS signal to go silent, even for weeks at a time, said Green, a scientist who has been studying the world’s largest fish for three decades in the unique marine ecosystem around the Galápagos Islands.

    But then he looked at satellite images in the area where Hope was last tracked – more than a thousand nautical miles west of the islands – and noticed the ocean was being patrolled by hundreds of Chinese fishing boats.


    “I began to look into it and found that at the very end of her track she began to speed up,” said Green, co-founder and director of the Galápagos Whale Shark Project.


    “It went from one knot to six or seven knots for the last 32 minutes – which is, of course, the speed of a fishing boat,” he said.


    The fishing vessels that Green saw on the satellite images are believed to belong to an enormous Chinese-flagged fleet which Ecuadorian authorities last week warned was just outside the Galápagos Islands’ territorial waters.


    “I don’t have proof but my hypothesis is that she was caught by vessels from the same fleet which is now situated to the south of the islands,” Green told the Guardian. She is the third GPS-tracked whale shark to have gone missing in the last decade, he added.


    The Chinese fleet, numbering more than 200 vessels, is in international waters just outside a maritime border around the Galápagos Islands and also Ecuador’s coastal waters, said Norman Wray, the islands’ governor.


    ‘The Galápagos Marine Reserve is a place of very great productivity, high biomass but also biodiversity.’

    Chinese fishing vessels come every year to the seas around the Galápagos, which were declared a Unesco world heritage site in 1978, but this year’s fleet is one of the largest seen in recent years. Of the 248 vessels, 243 are flagged to China including to companies with suspected records of illegal, unreported and unregulated, or IUU, fishing, according to research by C4ADS, a data analysis NGO.


    The fleet includes fishing boats and refrigerated container – or reefer – ships to store enormous catches.


    Transferring cargo between vessels is prohibited under international maritime law yet the Chinese flotilla has supply and storage ships along with longline and squid fishing boats.


    “There are some fleets which don’t seem to abide by any regulations,” said Wray.


    One captain of an Ecuadorian tuna boat saw the Chinese fishing boats up close in early July, before the end of the tuna season.


    “They just pull up everything!” said the captain, who asked not to be named. “We are obliged to take a biologist aboard who checks our haul; if we catch a shark we have to put it back, but who controls them?”


    He recalled navigating through the fleet at night, constantly changing course to avoid boats, as their lights illuminated the sea to attract squid to the surface.


    “It was like looking at a city at night,” he said.

    The longline fishing boats had up to 500 lines, each with thousands of fishhooks, he estimated, and claimed that some of the vessels would turn off their automatic tracking systems to avoid detection, particularly when operating in protected areas.

    Chinese fishing practices first caught the attention of Ecuador in 2017 when its navy seized the Chinese reefer Fu Yuan Yu Leng 999 within the Galápagos marine reserve. Inside its containers were 6,000 frozen sharks – including the endangered hammerhead shark and whale shark.


    “It was a slaughterhouse,” said Green, describing the images of the cargo hold. “This kind of slaughter is going on on a massive scale in international waters and nobody is witnessing it.”


    The seizure prompted protests outside the Chinese embassy in Quito; Ecuador fined the vessel $6m and the 20 Chinese crew-members were later jailed for up to four years for illegal fishing.


    The arrival of the latest fleet has also stirred public outrage and a formal complaint by Ecuador as its navy is on alert for any incursion into Ecuadorian waters.


    The Chinese embassy in Quito said that China was a “responsible fishing nation” with a “zero-tolerance” attitude towards illegal fishing. It had confirmed with Ecuador’s navy that all the Chinese fishing vessels were operating legally “and don’t represent a threat to anyone”, it said in a statement last month.

    However, Roque Sevilla, a former mayor of Quito, who is leading a team in charge of designing a “protection strategy” for the islands, said the fleet practices “indiscriminate fishing – regardless of species or age – which is causing a serious deterioration of the quality of fauna that we will have in our seas”.

    Ecuador would establish a corridor of marine reserves with Pacific-facing neighbours Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia to seal off important areas of marine diversity, Sevilla told the Guardian.


    Protecting the Cocos Ridge, an underwater mountain range which connects the Galápagos Islands to mainland Costa Rica, and the Carnegie Ridge which links the archipelago to Ecuador and continental South America, could close off more than 200,000 sq nautical miles of ocean otherwise vulnerable to industrial fishing, he said.

    He added Ecuador had called for a diplomatic meeting with Chile, Peru, Colombia and Panama to present a formal protest against China.

    “When the Galápagos’s protected area was first created it was cutting edge,” said Matt Rand, director of the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy, “but compared to other newer marine protected areas Galápagos is now potentially lacking in size to protect the biodiversity.”


    Milton Castillo, the Galápagos Islands’ representative for Ecuador’s human rights ombudsman’s office, said he had asked the prosecutor’s office to inspect the cargo holds of the Chinese ships based on the legal principle of the universal and extraterritorial protection of endangered species.


    China’s distant-water fishing fleet is the biggest in the world, with nearly 17,000 vessels – 1,000 of which use “flags of convenience” and are registered in other countries, according to research by the Overseas Development Institute.

    The fleet often fishes in the territorial waters of low-income countries, the report said, having depleted fish stocks in domestic waters.


    Green said the “explosion of life” created by the confluence of cold and warm ocean currents around the Galápagos Islands is exactly why the Chinese armada is hovering around the archipelago’s waters.


    “The Galápagos marine reserve is a place of very great productivity, high biomass but also biodiversity,” he said. The longline fishing technique used by the fleet catch big fish like tuna, but also sharks, rays, turtles and marine mammals like sea lions and dolphins, he added.


    “This is not fishing any more, it is simply destroying the resources of our oceans,” Green said. “We should ask whether any nation on this planet has the right to destroy what is common ground.
    'They just pull up everything!' Chinese fleet raises fears for Galapagos sea life | Environment | The Guardian
    Last edited by Cujo; 06-08-2020 at 10:03 PM.
    “If we stop testing right now we’d have very few cases, if any.” Donald J Trump.

  25. #25
    Thailand Expat
    panama hat's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Last Online
    21-10-2023 @ 08:08 AM
    Location
    Way, Way South of the border now - thank God!
    Posts
    32,680
    Quote Originally Posted by Cujo View Post
    Actually he didn't.
    He also said he'd never been . . . but he is clearly one, given the syntax he regales us with - I've been living/working in Asia for more than twenty years; Japan, HK, SG, TH and MY . . . he's ok, but not a Brit nor Canadian

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •