Over the past two decades, China has built the world’s largest deep-sea fishing fleet, nearly 3,000 boats.
Fish consumption continues to increase. At the same time, according to the latest report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the populations of most caught species continue to decline.
The EU is the main importer of fishery products, with 34 percent of the world share. How much comes from fishing from own boats and from other countries like China?
The MARE General Directorate of the European Union has the following objectives: to guarantee the sustainable use of ocean resources and a prosperous future for coastal communities and the fishing industry; promote maritime policies and foster a sustainable blue economy; promote international governance of the oceans.
DG MARE recently vetoed bottom fishing in 87 areas of the Atlantic to safeguard the ecosystem of vulnerable areas at depths between 400 and 800 meters as of October 9.
The measure affects 16,400 square kilometers that extend from the Gulf of Cádiz to the entire Atlantic and Cantabrian coast, the Bay of Biscay and Gran Sol. This decision will prevent the activity of a large part of the Galician trawling and longline fleet, as well as like minor arts. This same activity will continue, however, for Dutch vessels in the waters of the United Kingdom, Denmark or Germany.
The fishing problems are not European. They are global.
Having severely depleted stocks in its own coastal waters, China now fishes in every ocean in the world, on a scale that dwarfs entire fleets of countries near its own waters.
The impact is detected from the Indian Ocean to the South Pacific, from the coasts of Africa to those of South America, an offshore display of China’s global economic might.
The fleet has also been linked to the invasion of other countries’ territorial waters, labor abuses and the capture of endangered species. In 2017, Ecuador seized a reefer ship, the Fu Yuan Yu Leng 999, which was carrying an illegal shipment of 6,620 sharks, whose fins are a delicacy in China.
However, much of what China does is legal or unregulated. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), to which both China and Ecuador have adhered, regulates that States have the exclusive right to resources in a zone of 200 nautical miles (approximately 370 km) offshore. its costs.
China’s deep-sea vessel fleet, which currently includes more than 17,000 vessels, overfishing, deliberate and by-catch of protected species, uses trawls and marine nets, and other practices that accelerate the collapse of exploited populations .
The Oceana organization affirms that 18 of the 22 vessels off the Chilean coast, fishing illegally in the Nazca-Desventuradas protected area since 2018, are Chinese.
However, Chinese fishing goes beyond violating national EEZs.
Chinese demand for the totoaba’s swim bladder, which has a pharmacological effect similar to cocaine, has nearly caused the extinction of the porpoise known as the vaquita marina, in the Sea of Cortez in Mexico, which becomes trapped in the nets used to fish totoaba
China is able to fish on such an industrial scale thanks to vessels like the Hai Feng 718, a refrigerated cargo ship built in Japan in 1996. It is registered in Panama and managed by a company in Beijing called Zhongyu Global Seafood Corporation. It is owned by a state-owned company: the China National Fisheries Corporation.
Hai Feng 718 is a transport ship or mother ship. She has refrigerated warehouses to preserve large catches. She also carries fuel and other supplies for smaller boats that can offload their hauls and resupply their crews at sea. As a result, the other boats do not need to waste time returning to port, allowing them to fish almost continuously.
These operations have allowed, for example, a large increase in squid catches. Between 1990 and 2019, the number of boats fishing for deep-sea squid shot up from six to 528, while the reported annual catch rose from about 5,000 tonnes to 278,000, according to a report this year by Global Fishing Watch. In 2019, almost all squid vessels operating in the South Pacific were from China.
Transferring the catch to another vessel is not illegal, but according to experts, the use of mother ships makes it easier to underreport the catch and disguise its origins. Japan, South Korea and Taiwan have deep-sea fleets but not on the scale of China.
The impact on certain species such as squid off the coast of South America is difficult to measure accurately. In some regions, such as the South Pacific, international agreements require countries to report their catches, although underreporting is believed to be common. In the South Atlantic, there is no such agreement.
There are already worrying signs that could herald a broader collapse.
Who put the bell to the cat?
To know more
China has a huge appetite for the global fish stock. Steven Lee Myers, Agnes Chang, Derek Watkins, and Claire Fu. New York Times.
Cat and mouse on the high seas: on the trail of China’s vast squid fleet. Dan Collins. The Guardian.