Alarm over discovery of hundreds of Chinese fishing vessels near Galpagos Islands
Ecuador has sounded the alarm after its navy discovered a huge fishing fleet of mostly Chinese-flagged vessels some 200 miles from the Galápagos Islands, the archipelago which inspired Charles Darwins theory of evolution.
About 260 ships are currently in international waters just outside a 188-mile wide exclusive economic zone around the island, but their presence has already raised the prospect of serious damage to the delicate marine ecosystem, said a former environment minister, Yolanda Kakabadse.
This fleets size and aggressiveness against marine species is a big threat to the balance of species in the Galápagos, she told the Guardian.
Kakabadse and an ex-mayor of Quito, Roque Sevilla, were on Monday put in charge of designing a protection strategy for the islands, which lie 563 miles west of the South American mainland.
Chinese fishing vessels come every year to the seas around the Galápagos, which were declared a Unesco world heritage site in 1978, but this years fleet is one of the largest seen in recent years.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/hundreds-chinese-fishing-vessels-found-234229826.html