Is China about to damage a protected World Heritage site?

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A large fleet of some 260 Chinese fishing vessels has been spotted in the waters surrounding the Galápagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador, the country’s navy officials said last week.

The Ecuadorian Navy said it has increasing patrolling to ensure the Chinese ships do not enter the exclusive economic zone around the Galápagos Islands, where 19th-century British explorer Charles Darwin developed his theory of evolution, Reuters reported.

“We are on alert, conducting surveillance, patrolling to avoid an incident such as what happened in 2017,” Ecuador’s Defense Minister Oswaldo Jarrin said at a press conference. Three years ago, a Chinese ship was apprehended in the Galápagos Marine Reserve carrying 300 tons of marine wildlife -- mostly sharks, including the hammerhead, which is near extinction.

The Galápagos – as well as an about 188-mile radius of the surrounding ocean waters – was designated a Unesco world heritage site in 1978 for its unique marine wildlife and biodiversity. The Chinese fleet is sitting about 200 miles from the nine-island archipelago in international waters, The Guardian reported.

“This fleet’s size and aggressiveness against marine species is a big threat to the balance of species in the Galápagos,” Kakabadse said. To that sentiment, Sevilla echoed: “Unchecked Chinese fishing just on the edge of the protected zone is ruining Ecuador’s efforts to protect marine life in the Galápagos.”

Chinese fishing vessels annually come to the international waters around the Galapagos, but this year, the fleet is significantly larger than before and has come within a closer range of the islands.

Ecuador President Lenín Moreno tweeted his support in preserving the Galápagos Islands on Saturday, writing in Spanish: “We will work in a regional position to defend and protect the Exclusive Economic Zone around the Galápagos Marine Reserve, one of the richest fishing areas and a hotbed of life for the entire planet.”

Source: Ecuador navy 'on alert' as 260-strong Chinese fleet nears Galapagos Islands

Not good.

More if the ocean and her species needs to be protected, not less.

China neeeds to grow more food & if they want more seafood, do it as safely and cleanly as possible in farms on land. I know, difficult and not really done well these days.. but, necessity breeds invention. They'll find a way to produce clean safe food. (We all should.)

Better keep them off the islands or they will eat all the tortoises and iguanas after they clear out the fish.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.co ... index.html

The largest Chinese fishing fleet in recent years appeared off the coast of the Galapagos Islands, with some ships falsifying their locations, according to reports.

While the islands have been declared a Unesco world heritage site since the 70s, Chinese fishing vessels sail through every year. This year’s fleet hosted 248 vessels, 243 of which were flagged to China, with some registered to companies suspected of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, the Guardian reported.

The fleet may have attempted to appear as though it was not near the Galapagos at all. News Hub in New Zealand reported that some of the vessels may have been sending out false signals that indicate their position was between the Chatham Islands and New Zealand, some 10,000 km away from their observed location.

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

Global Fishing Watch and Skytruth analyst Bjorn Bergman told Stuff in New Zealand, “No Chinese flagged fishing vessels are currently fishing within New Zealand's EEZ [exclusive economic zone, which gives jurisdiction over natural resources].

“The tracks that are appearing below are in fact from vessels near the Galapagos Islands broadcasting false coordinates.”

Some of the ships reportedly are hunting for squid, while others have been accused of illegally hunting sharks.

“This fleet’s size and aggressiveness against marine species is a big threat to the balance of species in the Galápagos,” Yolanda Kakaabadse, a former environment minister, told the Guardian.

Kakabadse and an ex-mayor of Quito, Roque Sevilla, took charge of designing a “protection strategy” for the islands. Sevilla said that diplomatic efforts would be made to request the withdrawal of the fishing fleet, but it seems the fleet has continued to operate.

“They just pull up everything!” the captain of a tuna boat, who asked not to be named, told the Guardian. “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?”

Source: Chinese fleet fishing near Galapagos protected waters, allegedly falsifying GPS location

Their track record of obeying international law is basically non-existent. They have illegally salvaged WW2 shipwrecks that were designated war graves without any s***s given to the human remains they must've found.

I hold zero hope of them lifting a finger to stop the illegal fishing.

A new report shows Chinese fishing vessels illegally entered Ecuador’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) around the Galapagos Islands multiple times this summer. Chinese ships turned off Automatic Identification System tracking (AIS) on numerous occasions before pings of RF activity were detected nearby in Ecuadorian waters, according to a report and mapping released by HawkEye 360. Records indicate the boats turned off their AIS for 12 to 24 hours at a time, allowing them to cover large territory within the EEZ without being spotted.

While the practice is a common technique by foreign fishing vessels to enter sovereign areas, signal mapping technology by HawkEye 360 has provided clear evidence to conclude ongoing violations of international law. “We have specific RF activity hits from within that economic exclusion area...It’s very powerful evidence that there is activity occurring,” according to HawkEye 360 CEO John Serafini. HawkEye 360 is able to geolocate a variety of maritime signals at once, painting a clearer picture of the Chinese activity that is affecting Ecuadorian conservation efforts.



They have collaborated with Airbus to compare the RF and Synthetic aperture radar information, with satellite images. This confirmed that dozens of vessels had “gone dark” to avoid being monitored.

Over the summer more than 250 Chinese ships were discovered by the Ecuadorian Navy and suspected of taking part in illegal fishing. Half of them had turned off traditional tracking methods at some point according to Ecuador’s Defense Ministry.

“It’s not unusual for these ships and for fishing vessels to kind of press the limits to try to cross over in the areas where they’re trying to follow fresh catches,” HawkEye 360 Product Marketing Director Adam Bennett said.

Reports earlier this month indicated that Chinese boats were still operating near the Galapagos Islands in early September, despite promises by the Chinese government to temporarily ban fishing there.

“The consequences could be very vast for the environment, the Chinese vessels are fishing on areas where the migratory organisms are constantly using for their cycles,” according to Galapagos-based Biologist Leandro Vaca.

Source: Chinese fishing fleets caught in Galapagos Islands violating Ecuadorian sovereignty

The Galapagos is precious. We must be very vigilant in protecting it.

Just like we must be more vigilant in keeping other "protected areas" from being overrun by development.

Perhaps mines would be an appropriate response.

Technically a breach of international law? how come no action by the Ecuadorian navy?

True.

Just sink all of those SOB's!

That aint gonna happen

Ecuador is one of a few small nations states that have pushed back against the Chinese flotillas. In the hotly disputed South China Sea, Indonesia set F-16 fighter jets along with the navy, coastguard and fishing boats to repel 63 Chinese fishing boats and four coastguard vessels from its waters in January.

“But North Korean fishing boats may have come off worse from exchanges with China’s “dark fleets”, amid reports of “ghost boats” washing up on Japanese shores containing the bodies of North Korean fishermen. In its backyard, the Chinese fleet has a fearsome reputation for systemic illegal fishing and aggressive tactics when faced with competitors or foreign patrol vessels.”

Source: 'It's terrifying': can anyone stop China's vast armada of fishing boats?

Everyone's too scared of China and their military might to risk their wrath.
Which is why China is currently so dangerous.
We need to keep watching this.

Is the world suppose to just sit back and watch the Chinese destroy the Ocean's wildlife?

Doing that would be extremely destructive to the environment nice idea though it is. Impounding and scrapping of the vessels would be far safer.

Around the world there are environmental disaster wrecks like U864...we don't want more.