🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
The Chilean navy has shared photos of one of its submarines monitoring what appears to be a ship from China's wide-ranging distant-water fishing fleet (DWF).
The photos, uploaded to social media on December 16, were captured as one of the South American country's four diesel-electric submarines was on a mission to "verify and control the transit of the foreign fishing fleet" in Juan Fernandez Islands Marine Park, the post said without naming China.
China's DWF fleet—the world's largest—is a leading source of Illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing. With the local fish stocks significantly diminished, the ships operate throughout the world, depleting fisheries of developing countries.
The DWF vessels are not only numerous but massive, able to "scoop up as many fish in one week as local boats from Senegal or Mexico might catch in a year," according to The Outlaw Ocean Project Director Ian Urbina.
China's DWF is "one of the worst offenders" of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, U.S. Coast Guard commandant Admiral Linda Fagan said earlier this year. She pointed out that smaller countries often lack the resources to sufficiently police their exclusive economic zones, within which international law gives a nation the sole right to underwater resources.
Chile and other countries in the region have learned to keep a watchful eye on the Chinese DWF.
In May, Soledad Tapia, the director of Chilean fisheries service Sernpesca, said the "devastating" ships were under constant surveillance by the country's navy and that they have "a clear picture of how fast they move, where they slow down, and if they effectively fish or not," according to news outlet Mercopress.
The Juan Fernandez Islands are about 400 miles west of mainland Chile. Covering more than 100,000 square miles of ocean, it is home to a rich and unique biodiversity. More than 68 percent of its species are endemic.
Newsweek reached out to the Chilean navy and Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.
"China executes the world's strictest management measures and regulations to monitor and position distant-water fishing vessels, and adopts a 'zero tolerance' attitude towards illegal fishing," China's State Council Information Office said in a white paper on the country's DWF published in October.
The white paper said China also "strictly regulates seafood imports and exports."
This month, the largest Chinese fisheries ship, the Lan Hai 201, embarked on a survey mission in the northwestern Indian Ocean. Among its stated goals was improving China's fishery governance and taking stock of fishery resources and their natural environment.
fairness meter
About the writer
Micah McCartney is a reporter for Newsweek based in Taipei, Taiwan. He covers U.S.-China relations, East Asian and Southeast Asian ... Read more