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#China’s Monster Fishing Fleet
Though not alone in its destructive practices, #Beijing’s rapacious fleet causes humanitarian disasters and has a unique military mission, taking over weaker countries’ waters & expanding Beijing’s maritime ambitions. https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/11/30/china-beijing-fishing-africa-north-korea-south-china-sea/
Though not alone in its destructive practices, #Beijing’s rapacious fleet causes humanitarian disasters and has a unique military mission, taking over weaker countries’ waters & expanding Beijing’s maritime ambitions. https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/11/30/china-beijing-fishing-africa-north-korea-south-china-sea/
Today, according to a report by the British Overseas Development Institute, China’s blue-water fishing fleet is by far the world’s largest, and includes 12,490 unique vessels that were observed to have been fishing outside China’s internationally recognized EEZ in 2017 and 2018.
That’s many times more than previous estimates, and very different from China’s own claim of having only 3,000 ships fishing international or other countries’ waters—but that’s only because China doesn’t recognize the UN Law of the Sea Treaty’s demarcation of maritime borders.
Though China isn’t alone in its destructive fishing practices, it stands apart by virtue of its sheer size and the extent to which it pushes its highly subsidized fleet across the world’s oceans.
China’s fishing fleet appears engaged, often illegally, in the effort to haul in as much seafood as it can, as fast as it can, in as many places as it can—with little regard for how its practices affect malnourished people or diminish the stocks of their fish.
