Oceana Finds 300 Chinese Vessels Pillaging the Galapagos for Squid

The Galapagos Islands are an oasis for ocean wildlife with more than 20% of their marine species[i] found nowhere else on Earth. This remote area, nearly 900 kilometers off Ecuador’s coast, was once a “living laboratory” that inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. But today, the Galapagos is under siege by an industrial fishing fleet. In one month (July 13 – Aug. 13) nearly 300 Chinese vessels appeared to amass more than 73,000 hours fishing off the Galapagos Islands. This snapshot of fishing activity raises questions about the impact of this massive fishing armada on the oceans it sails.

During the one-month period, 99% of the visible fishing activity,[1] off the Galapagos was by Chinese-flagged vessels. The massive and ongoing fishing effort of this fleet threatens both ecological balance and livelihoods. Based on Global Fishing Watch (GFW) data, these 294 Chinese-flagged vessels were primarily targeting squid, which is essential to the diet of iconic Galapagos species such as fur seals[ii] and hammerhead sharks,[iii] as well as many commercial and recreational fish species such as tuna[iv] and billfish[v] that contribute to the local economy. This fleet’s actions run counter to fishing rules implemented by the Chinese government in recent months to improve sustainable fishing practices. What is happening now in the Galapagos raises the question of whether these “rules” were merely rhetoric by the Chinese government.

China is the world’s largest fishing nation by far with a distant water fleet estimated to consist of as many as 17,000 vessels[vi] (compared to the European Union and the United states which each have approximately 250 to 300 vessels) and accounts for 40% of the global fishing effort.[vii] China is also ranked the worst nation in the world by the IUU Fishing Index,[viii] a tool that analyzes many countries’ vulnerability, exposure and responses to IUU fishing, when it comes to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, and its fleet has been routinely implicated in violations related to overfishing, targeting endangered shark species, illegal intrusion of jurisdiction, false licensing and catch documentation, and forced labor.[ix]

[1]   Any and all references to "fishing" should be understood in the context of Global Fishing Watch's fishing detection algorithm, which is a best effort to determine "apparent fishing effort" based on vessel speed and direction data from the Automatic Identification System (AIS) collected via satellites and terrestrial receivers. As AIS data varies in completeness, accuracy and quality, and the fishing detection algorithm is a statistical estimate of apparent fishing activity, therefore it is possible that some fishing effort is not identified and conversely, that some fishing effort identified is not fishing. For these reasons, GFW qualifies all designations of vessel fishing effort, including synonyms of the term "fishing effort," such as "fishing" or "fishing activity," as "apparent," rather than certain. Any/all GFW information about "apparent fishing effort" should be considered an estimate and must be relied upon solely at your own risk. GFW is taking steps to make sure fishing effort designations are as accurate as possible.

[i] Biodiversity. (n.d.). Galapagos Conservancy, Inc. Retrieved September 11, 2020, from https://www.galapagos.org/about_galapagos/about-galapagos/biodiversity/

[ii] Cephalopods in the diet of fur seals of the Galapagos Islands | Request PDF. (n.d.). ResearchGate. Retrieved September 9, 2020, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228040015_Cephalopods_in_the_diet_of_fur_seals_of_the_Galapagos_Islands

[iii] Galván-Magaña, F., Polo-Silva, C., Berenice Hernández-Aguilar, S., Sandoval-Londoño, A., Ruth Ochoa-Díaz, M., Aguilar-Castro, N., Castañeda-Suárez, D., Cabrera Chavez-Costa, A., Baigorrí-Santacruz, Á., Eden Torres-Rojas, Y., & Andrés Abitia-Cárdenas, L. (2013). Shark predation on cephalopods in the Mexican and Ecuadorian Pacific Ocean. Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography, 95, 52–62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr2.2013.04.002

[iv] Varela, J. L., Intriago, K. M., Flores, J. C., & Lucas-Pilozo, C. R. (2017). Feeding habits of juvenile yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) in Ecuadorian waters assessed from stomach content and stable isotope analysis. Fisheries Research, 194, 89–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fishres.2017.05.017

[v] Loor-Andrade, P., Pincay-Espinoza, J., Carrera-Fernández, M., Rosas-Luis, R., Loor-Andrade, P., Pincay-Espinoza, J., Carrera-Fernández, M., & Rosas-Luis, R. (2017). Feeding habits of billfishes (Carangaria: Istiophoriformes) in the Ecuadorian Pacific Ocean. Neotropical Ichthyology, 15(3). https://doi.org/10.1590/1982-0224-20160162

[vi] China’s distant-water fishing fleet: Scale, impact and governance. (n.d.). ODI. Retrieved September 10, 2020, from https://www.odi.org/publications/16958-china-s-distant-water-fishing-fleet-scale-impact-and-governance

[vii] Shining a Light: The Need for Transparency across Distant Water Fishing • Stimson Center. (2019, November 1). Stimson Center. https://www.stimson.org/2019/shining-light-need-transparency-across-distant-water-fishing/

[viii] IUU Fishing Index. (2019, February 7). Global Initiative. https://globalinitiative.net/iuu-fishing-index/

[ix] Project, I. U. of T. O. O., & News, for C. (2020, July 23). Unmasking China’s invisible fleet in North Korean waters. https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/china-at-sea