Report: Illegal Chinese Fleet in South American Waters Is Devastating Fish Stocks

The persistent threat of an invasive fleet of illegal Chinese fishing ships in Latin American waters is depleting fish stocks and impacting the regional economy, according to a report published on Sunday by the Spanish news agency EFE.

The constant presence of illegal Chinese ships and their consequences to the local fauna and economy have generated great concern among regional authorities, who are making efforts to curb the destruction of their respective countries’ natural resources. EFE’s report gathered testimonies from Chilean, Peruvian, Ecuadorian, and Argentine authorities.

The report found that, in Argentina, the Chinese vessels are causing a depredation of local species found in the southwest Atlantic, such as squid and the Patagonian toothfish. The affected area, located some 310 miles east of the San Jorge Gulf, borders the nation’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and is a treasure trove of biodiversity that is key for the spawning and feeding of seabirds and marine mammals, such as the southern right whale.

The report found that, during 2023’s January-July high fishing season, some 400 vessels fished in that area using trawl nets. Chinese vessel activity in the Argentine area increased from 61,727 hours per 500 square kilometers in 2023 to 384,056 hours in 2024, according to data from the Global Fishing Watch platform.

Since 1986, Argentine authorities have seized 80 foreign-flagged fishing vessels, 12 of them Chinese. In 2016, Argentine Coast Guard authorities chased and sank a Chinese vessel identified as Lu Yan Yuan Yu 010 after it was found illegally fishing in the exclusive EEZ maritime area.

In Ecuador, the illegal Chinese fleet presence is “permanent,” the director of Marine Conservation of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF Ecuador) office in Ecuador told EFE.

The Chinese fishing boats search for giant squid but are reportedly equipped to catch all kinds of species. They are accompanied by support vessels that receive the catch and supply them with food and fuel.

In 2023, the Ecuadorian government signed a cooperation agreement with the United States to help fight against illegal Chinese fishing ships in Ecuadorian waters after their actions endangered the maritime biodiversity of the Galápagos Islands.

The Galápagos Islands are home to some of the highest levels of endemism on the planet, housing species not found elsewhere. The unique biodiversity inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.

“Publicly exposing China’s bad behavior has done some good, but the operation of its highly subsidized fleet remains opaque,” Guerrero told EFE.

In August 2017, Ecuadorian authorities detained a Chinese vessel named Fu Yuan Yu Leng 999 as it crossed the Galápagos Marine Reserve without due authorization. The authorities inspected the vessel and found that it contained more than 7,600 sharks, of which 432 were fetuses, as well as 537 bags of shark fins and 2,114 fish.

The incident remains Ecuador’s most emblematic capture of a Chinese illegal vessel. Following the vessel’s capture, Chinese authorities claimed that its vessels would not go beyond 200 miles of Galapagos’ territorial waters, but studies published by the Ecuadorian government in 2022 found that illegal Chinese fishing vessels are also responsible for the majority of the manmade waste found near the islands.

In Peru, illegal Chinese vessels have fished squid for decades in the country’s maritime border. The situation has been denounced by various conservation and fishing organizations, who have raised the alarm about the illegal incursion into Peruvian waters.

The fisheries director of the non-government organization Oceana, Juan Carlos Sueiro, told EFE that this is not a new problem and Peruvian artisanal fishermen are the most affected by the Chinese vessels’ illegal activities.

In 2020, Peru enacted a law so that only ships using the Peruvian satellite system could dock in its ports, not the ones that Chinese vessels used to use, which were turned off the moment they entered Peruvian waters.

Sueiro explained that Peru ended up accepting the arrival of Chinese ships under the pretext of forced arrival.

The report also found that Chile is challenged by the illegal capture of species by “the barrier of Chinese ships that look out over the Antarctic.”

Local activists in the Chilean city of Punta Arenas pointed out to EFE that this “wall” of Chinese ships is responsible for the impoverishment of the Magellanic coast and the appearance of red tides, due to the lack of natural circulation of marine fauna between Antarctica and the southernmost South American territory.

The overexploitation of these fishing grounds, EFE reported, prevents different fish and mammals, such as whales, from approaching the coast of Chile and Argentina, which disrupts the food chain of both countries.

“Chile has not recorded illegal fishing infractions, but it maintains constant monitoring when these vessels transit from the Pacific to the Atlantic,” César Astete, the Fisheries Director of the nonprofit environmentalist organization Oceana told EFE.

“It is to be hoped that all states develop efforts to monitor and control the fishing operations of the foreign long-distance fleet,” he added.

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.