Ecuador’s Navy is “on alert” and patrolling the waters near the Galapagos Islands after about 260 fishing boats from China descended upon the area.
Although Chinese fishing boats typically show up to the region every year, this year’s fleet is larger than in the past, raising concerns about the potential for damage to the delicate ecosystem that surrounds the archipelago. The ships have thus far remained outside the 188-mile-wide exclusive economic zone around the islands.
Ecuador’s Defense Minister Oswaldo Jarrin invoked memories of a 2017 incident with a Chinese fishing vessel during a news conference on the matter this week. That year, the Ecuadorian Navy seized the Chinese-flagged ship Fu Yuan Yu Leng 999, which had ventured into the marine reserve. On board the vessel were about 300 tons of endangered or near-extinct species of marine life, including sharks, Reuters reported at the time.
“We are on alert, conducting surveillance, patrolling to avoid an incident such as what happened in 2017,” Jarrin said, noting that the Navy has been monitoring the fleet since last week. “There is a corridor that is international waters, that’s where the fleet is located.”
Yolanda Kakabadse, the country’s former environment minister, and the former mayor of Quito, Roque Sevilla, were put in charge of coming up with a “protection strategy” for the archipelago on Monday, the Guardian reported. Sevilla said that diplomatic efforts are underway to ask the Chinese to leave the area.
“Unchecked Chinese fishing just on the edge of the protected zone is ruining Ecuador’s efforts to protect marine life in the Galapagos,” Sevilla said.
The Galapagos Islands are home to a stunning number of endemic species, and the island chain was designated a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization in 1978.
John Hourston, a spokesman for the Blue Planet Society, a group that advocates against overfishing, said his organization was “appalled” to learn of a “massive Chinese industrial fishing fleet” near the islands.
Ecuador’s military has, in addition to a Naval Infantry Corps, two functioning attack submarines and several guided missile warships.
