Oceana Finds China’s Fishing Fleet Swarms Galápagos, then Disappears from Sight
The country’s fishing fleet was identified by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing activity and human rights abuses in its 2023 biennial report to U.S. Congress .
- The country’s fishing fleet was identified by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing activity and human rights abuses in its 2023 biennial report to U.S. Congress .
- Oceana analyzed the activity of Chinese-flagged fishing vessels in the EEZ around the Galápagos Islands using Automatic Identification System (AIS) data from Global Fishing Watch (GFW),** an independent nonprofit founded by Oceana in partnership with SkyTruth and Google.
- Most (94%) of the Chinese fishing vessels were squid jiggers, which accounted for an apparent 134,000 hours of 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.