MEXICO CITY – Satellite knowledge implies that a giant Chinese fishing fleet remained in foreign waters near the Galapagos archipelago in Ecuador before this month, even when China announced that it would temporarily ban fishing near the UNESCO World Heritage site.
Knowledge of boat tracking on the public map created through Global Fishing Watch, an organization that tracks advertising fishing boats, shows that the fleet was concentrated until at least September 1 along the southern border of the exclusive economic zone around the Galapagos, which spans two hundred nautical miles.(370 kilometers) of the islands.
This is where the fleet has been, estimated on several hundred ships, since June, extending considerations on overpesca and risk to marine species in nutrient-rich waters around the archipelago that encouraged Charles Darwin in the progression of his theory of evolution..
China said the fleet was doing nothing illegal, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on 6 August that the Chinese fisheries authority would put into force a fishing fence near the Galapagos from September to November to “contribute to the coverage of fishery resources in the region..”
Claims that china’s fleet is depleting Southeast Pacific marine resources have caused wider tensions between China and the United States.On August 27, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said reports that Chinese shipments near the Galapagos “were deactivating tracking systems, converting shipment names, and leaving marine debris” are deeply troubling.
A day later, the Chinese Embassy in Ecuador accused Pompeo of selling false information.
China calls for its fishing vessels to operate with tracking formulas that report places once they are consistent with the time, “which is very impressive for the foreign practice of reporting every 4 hours,” the embassy said.No Chinese fishing boat tracking formula has been deactivated in the Southeast Pacific, “except for a few hours when the satellite signal has been temporarily delayed or lost,” he said.
Ecuador’s defense minister, Oswaldo Jarrón, had said in the past that almost part of China’s fleet had deactivated its tracking systems.The Ecuadorian Navy reported on August 31 that one of its ships had trained with an American coast guard, usCGC Bertholf, and that the two had exchanged data on “foreign” fishing fleets near the Galapagos.
At the same time, Ecuador has been very indebted to China for years.President Lenon Moreno announced wednesday another $2 billion in Chinese loans, after $6.5 billion agreed with the International Monetary Fund last week.According to the IMF, Ecuador’s economy, which was fragile even before it was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and falling oil prices, is expected to fall by 11% this year.
China’s fishing fleet has given the impression of being close to the Galapagos for years, the last fleet being among the largest.Even if a moratorium is implemented in fishing, environmentalists say that long-term pressure on marine life around the archipelago will only increase.
This year’s fleet has caught squid with selective lines that “only catch squid, fish nothing else,” said Pablo Guerrero, WWF-Ecuador’s director of marine conservation for this fleet.
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