Moss Galapagos tweeted that the first
chinese industrial fishing boat named Shun Xing 18 was installed in hashtag
galapagos.
We request concrete actions to ensure
that they don't enter the exclusive
economic zone. Moss Galapagos spokeswoman Eliasair
crews stated that while the chinese
fleet has remained in international
waters, it was likely to approach and
penetrate ecuadorian waters.
This is similar to what many illegal
chinese fishing boats have done in the
past. The bulk of the fleet lies about
400 kilometers west of the archipelago
of Galapagos.
Although it is quite far, they still send
one or two ships ahead. Once they find the squid bank they call
the rest of the ships, over and the whole
fleet comes over.
He explained Gustavo Enrique, Ecuador's
environment minister stated to El Commercio that the fleet was not from a
particular country. He also said that the fleet has not yet
entered ecuador's exclusive economic
zone. This is a maritime zone over which a
sovereign nation holds exclusive rights
to search for natural resources.
Enrique stated that Ecuador's defense
ministry is monitoring the fleet to make
sure it doesn't enter ecuadorian
territory. He stated that ecuador would respond to
any fleet entering its EEZ.
Global fish watch, a commercial fishing
tracker is also monitoring the chinese
vessel's path. Crews informed the argentine news
website info by that crews did this on
june 29th.
Andre Robles from Voyageur's Travel Company, also gave an important statement
relating conservation to tourism, a shark
in the water is worth one thousand times
more than one in the net. Millions of USD are generated from eco-tourism
operations bringing divers to visit the
famous marine reserve that surrounds the Galapagos Islands.
The Navy of Ecuador stated that it was
on alert, and would resume operations in
july following detection of an illegal
chinese fishing fleet that was moving
very close, towards Ecuador's EEZ.
This area surrounds the galapagos
archipelago, the illegal fishing boats
threatened the fragile aquatic life
around the island chain. Because of its unique biodiversity, the
archipelago has been designated the
galapagos marine reserve.
Ecuador protects it as an
environmentally sensitive area, it is
also a UNESCO World Heritage site. In
2017 a chinese vessel was illegally
caught fishing in the galapagos marine
reserve. Twenty of the vessel's crew were
arrested by ecuadorian security officers. They were found with almost seven
thousand endangered sharks aboard.
