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The Galapagos Islands are a unique natural paradise in the Pacific. The archipelago is home to numerous endemic animal and plant species, which is why they are only found on the islands or in the surrounding aquatic world. One would think that the isolated location about a thousand kilometers off the Ecuadorian coast in South America is enough to protect this paradise.
But in recent years fishermen have threatened the aquatic habitat with sometimes huge fleets. Hundreds of ships cast their nets there, most of them come from China. As a result, there were repeated conflicts with the government of Ecuador. One of the accusations: Fishing vessels intentionally shut down their tracking systems to fish undetected within protected areas.
Chinese fishermen returned with a full fleet this season. The environmental organization Oceana had almost 300 ships. She has documented the extent of Chinese fishing off the protected archipelago. According to this, the fleet completed fishing trips of a staggering 73,000 hours in one month. The Chinese mainly target squid. It is not known how many tons were caught. Squids are the main source of food for seals and sharks in the region.
Oceana data was collected from July 13 to August 13. They only provide a small sample of the fishing activities in the region. But that already raises questions about the consequences of massive fishing, according to a report. 99 percent of the recognized fishing boats came from China. Only ten ships from other countries were recognized in the analysis. They fished about 775 hours in the four weeks.
Environmentalists used data from Global Fishing Watch (GFW) for the investigation. For this initiative, Oceana has been evaluating satellite images together with Google and the non-profit organization SkyTruth since 2016. An algorithm uses the movements, speed and direction of the ship to calculate whether a ship is currently on a voyage of fishing; then its speed is slightly reduced. However, according to the report, deviations are also possible. Depending on the quality of the data, the boats could be on a fishing trip without being recognized by the algorithm. On the other hand, the movements identified as fishing trips could not be any. So there are certain uncertainties in the data.
The Ecuadorian government became concerned in August that there are currently hundreds of fishing boats, mostly Chinese, sailing off the coast of the protected Galapagos Islands. At that time the country complained about the opaque actions of the Chinese. Although the ships were in international waters, it was said. But the automatic identification system (AIS) on some boats would shut down more frequently, making it impossible to determine where the fish are caught.
According to Oceana data, there were 43 cases of AIS disconnections by Chinese ships during the period under review. On average, the system, which sends data on, among other things, the position, the name of the ship or the type of ship via VHF radio, did not send any information for two days. One ship did not send any data for 17 days. However, the data does not provide any evidence that the ships have actually entered unauthorized areas. Around the Galapagos Islands, an area of 133,000 square kilometers of marine area is protected.
There have been a number of illegal activities that have been detected in the past. In 2017, a Chinese fishing boat caught a rare species of shark in the Galapagos Islands. The crew had around 300 tons of fish on board. The fishermen were sentenced to prison.
