A fleet of Chinese ships has positioned itself on the border of the unique marine reserve of the Galapagos Islands and begun aggressive fishing activities, which could seriously harm the marine life in the area. What does international law say about this situation and what can be done to protect our oceans?
Currently, a photo exhibition by photographer Jonathan Green is on display at the entrance to the Tel Aviv Museum of Natural History, capturing the intense and unique nature of the Galapagos Islands. Unfortunately, the situation on the islands themselves is far from being so photogenic and peaceful: 265 Chinese fishing vessels They arrived in the Galapagos Islands reserve in May to catch as many fish and marine animals as possible – mainly sharks – for sale in Chinese markets.
According to evidenceChinese fishing boats use particularly aggressive methods to obtain their prey, and therefore the nets they deploy for hundreds of kilometers catch many marine animals: sea turtles, penguins, dolphins, whales, and sharks of various species, including hammerhead sharks and whale sharks, which are in danger of extinction.
"The size of the fleet and this aggression of the fleet against marine species pose a major threat to the balance of species in the Galapagos... This situation could seriously affect the marine ecosystem and also harm the livelihoods and well-being of fishing communities in the Galapagos, Ecuador and northern Peru," said Ecuador's former environment minister, Yolanda Cababaza, in an interview with the British newspaper The Guardian.
Many scientists and environmental activists also express their concern about the damage to the marine environment caused by fishing vessels, but the problem is that currently there is no body that can act legally or otherwise to stop this fishing attack, and it appears that Chinese fishermen are exploiting the situation to their advantage.
Ecuador is alone in the campaign
The Galapagos Islands and the Galapagos Marine Reserve are an area of unique biological diversity. The islands were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978 on land and in 1988 broad boundaries were established for the marine reserve. However, although the Galapagos Islands are considered one of the most protected places in the world, they are vulnerable to attacks by commercial fishing fleets that have been increasing in recent years.
According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), countries are allowed to fish in international waters, even those not adjacent to their borders. Therefore, the Chinese ships chose to position themselves on the edge of the Galapagos Islands Reserve, on the main migratory routes of marine animals, which arrive in this area at a time when it is abundant in food.
It is likely that there are countries that would not allow fishing vessels to exploit their natural resources. Ecuador, to which the Galapagos Islands belong, lacks the technological and financial resources to implement a surveillance system capable of deterring foreign vessels in the protected waters of the Galapagos Islands.
"We are on alert, conducting surveillance and patrols to avoid an event like the one that occurred in 2017," said Ecuadorian Defense Minister Oswaldo Jarin. In the summer of 2017, A Chinese fleet of hundreds of vessels arrived near the Galapagos, but unlike what is happening today, one of the Chinese ships (Fu Yuan Yu Leng 999), crossed and invaded Ecuador's territorial waters. In response, Ecuador confiscated the Chinese ship, which was found to be carrying 300 tons of fish, including illegally caught tuna, and 6,000 sharks, including silky sharks and hammerhead sharks, which are critically endangered. The ship's crew was fined $6.1 million and sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to four years.But this still does not deter Chinese fishermen, who continue to come to the area every year during this period.
Ecuador's Defense Minister also said that "as long as the Chinese fishing fleet does not enter Ecuador's exclusive economic zone, military forces cannot act," adding that Ecuador is certain that most of the ships are indeed Chinese, even if some of them carry the flags of other countries.
Chinese fishermen around the world
Ecuador is not the only victim of massive foreign fishing. China's fishing efforts have increased dramatically in recent years in many regions, including Asia, Africa, and Central and South America. The Chinese government has increased subsidies for long-distance fishing vessels to supply large quantities of fish to its domestic market.
"When resources are within a country's exclusive economic zone, its laws can be enforced, but if the activity is taking place in international waters, then according to the current situation it has no authority to enforce them," says Rani Amir, director of the National Unit for Marine Environmental Protection at the Ministry of Environmental Protection. "There is, however, an advanced initiative at the UN to establish a treaty on the subject, but it has not yet been signed - and due to the Corona crisis, discussions on the subject have been postponed to an unknown date."
“The high seas make up almost 70 percent of the Earth, but there is still no regulation to protect them,” says Max Blue, a policy expert atMission Blue Organization, which works to protect marine resources. “The oceans are still considered the ‘Wild West’ of the planet. It is important to set new goals for protecting the oceans and these goals must include fully protected areas. Currently, only 2.9 percent of the oceans are fully protected areas – that is, the other 97 percent of the sea is open to exploitation by countries and companies. I do not think this is the way we should treat the life-support system of this planet and humanity.”
"The key to protecting the sea lies in the fishing sector. There is strong pressure from industrial fishing groups and countries that support less regulation and enforcement of the high seas so that they can continue to exploit marine resources. Of course, it will be difficult to eliminate all high seas fishing, but we must save where we can, and international support is needed to do so. It could be many years before the new UN treaty comes into effect unless there is a real and widespread push for faster action on the issue."
The damage is enormous.
"The damage from fishing vessels in the Galapagos region is enormous," says Dr. Alex Harn, professor of biology and environmental sciences. From the Center for Galapagos Studies"We don't have data from the Chinese ships themselves on the quantities of their catch, but we can say that 60 percent of the hammerhead shark fins sold in Hong Kong markets come from this area. Whale sharks, which are rare and can reach 100 years of age or more, are also being affected. In recent years, for example, three whale sharks that were tagged with transmitters stopped transmitting because they were hunted by the Chinese ships."
"We've identified about 35 different species of sharks in the Galapagos Islands and they're one of the only places in the world where you can still see large schools of hammerhead sharks," says Hearn. "Unfortunately, there hasn't been a consistent monitoring program for the sharks in the Galapagos, so we can't say much about their population trends. However, A study conducted in 2018 In the nearby Cocos Islands, it showed a 45 percent decrease in hammerhead shark numbers. In contrast, there was an increase in the tiger shark population, which tends to stay close to the islands themselves and not migrate to the open sea. This shows that species that remain in the waters around the protected islands manage to survive, but species that move away from the islands into the open sea, where the large fishing vessels operate, become extinct."
"Unfortunately, these marine hunting activities have not yet been outlawed," adds Haran. "During the year, there are ships that hunt a lot of squid, which seriously harms the food chain of other animals. In the summer season, we mainly see damage to the species that we are trying to protect, such as manatees, sea turtles, sharks, tuna, and others. Beyond that, there is additional damage to the environment caused by the activities of the Chinese ships - Preliminary data shows that 15 percent of the trash on the beaches of the Galapagos Islands is Chinese.".
There are no boundaries underwater.
"Underwater has no boundaries, and marine animals are unaware of the boundaries set by humans," says Prof. Noa Shenkar, a researcher at the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History and the School of Zoology at Tel Aviv University, who has conducted research in the Galapagos Islands. "They come to the area to eat, and the fishing boats are right there waiting for them. The fishing boats in the area strip the sea of everything that comes close. They fish in a non-selective manner, and therefore harm many species, even those that they did not plan to catch, such as invertebrates and others. Even if some of the animals are returned to the sea, they will often be irreparably damaged. In addition, the boats also cause other damage, such as pollution, noise, and trash that ends up on the beaches."
"The feeling is that if we fail to protect the very important marine reserve of the Galapagos Islands, there is no chance of properly protecting other reserves in the world," concludes Shenkar. "Those who want to help the efforts to protect our oceans can donate to organizations that specialize in this – such as, for example, Charles Darwin Foundation "The world".
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