The Galapagos Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed 906 km west of mainland Ecuador.
Boats and military submarines monitor 245 Chinese fishing vessels in Galapagos
ECUADOR
Thursday, April 25, 2019, 20:40 (GMT + 9)
The Ecuadorian Navy has deployed ships, boats and submarines to monitor that a huge Chinese fishing fleet does not exceed the maritime limits of the Galapagos Islands, a natural heritage of humanity.
Commander of the Navy Darwin Jarrin said that "it is a predatory fleet of the seas" integrated by 245 units comprising fishing boats, factory and supply vessels, which move in the vicinity of the archipelago for the third consecutive year and which are involved in unregulated fishing practices.
He added that it is necessary to form a common front against the activities of such fleets, and that the situation should be addressed at the next meeting of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
The Chinese fleet appeared for the first time in 2017 in waters near the Galapagos Islands, with 297 vessels; the following year it was increased to 300 vessels in fishing operations.
Aerial photo of the Ecuadorian Navy monitoring a Chinese fishing vessel.
In August 2017, the vessel Fu Yuan Yu Leng 999 was stopped when it sailed with illegal catches within the Galápagos marine reserve. The ship was confiscated and auctioned and its crewmembers were sentenced and are still detained in Ecuador.
UNESCO declared in 1979 a World Heritage Site that archipelago located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and 1,000 kilometers from the coasts of Ecuador in attention to its animal and plant species, terrestrial and marine, unique in the world, which served as a base for the English scientist Charles Darwin to elaborate his theory of the evolution of the species.(AP)
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