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Just saw 2 Chinese sand dredges (抽砂船) buzz the submerged beach at Jinsha Village in Taiwan-controlled Lienchiang County, aka Matsu, just km off China's Fujian coast. Residents here say the dredges have greatly diminished the local beach in recent months during early am hours.
A third Chinese dredge came even closer while I was typing the previous tweet. One resident I spoke with here shrugged and said “The sand comes from their river, I guess they can have some of it.”
A fourth dredge passed by much closer than the others, from the other direction, where it was met by a fifth large dredge. Number five le the coast of Matsu's Nangan Island (南竿島) to join the first three near Jyuguang Island (莒光島), also part of Taiwan-controlled Matsu.
For reference, Lienchiang County aka Matsu is about 19 kilometers off of China's coast
This is what Jinsha Beach looks like at low tide these days. Residents say it was much nicer before the dredges came.
Was briefly escorted by two kittens while dredge-hunting. Kittens being kittens, it was impossible to get them to pose for a photo. This is all I got.
Residents of Turban Village (鐵板村) tell me Chinese dredges have stolen most of their beach's sand. “Our beach was once much, much bigger than it is now”, one resident told me, saying the dredges were a constant presence, and made a lot of noise at night. Can confirm the noise.
I asked a cafe owner why the coast guard didn't do anything about the Chinese dredges, and she said they had confiscated one before and tried to auction it, but nobody wanted it, so now it's rusting in Fu'ao Harbor. Hiked to the harbor and there it was, ID marks painted over.
I spoke too soon. The rear of the dredge says “Zhangzhou”, a city in China's Fujian province, with the pinyin romanization used in China beneath. Apologies for the dark photos, asked the sun to move behind me for better light, but it wouldn't cooperate.
