Sosok.ID – Recently, China often annoys the countries around the Sea China South.
This is because there are many ships China that crosses the territorial waters of these countries, including Indonesia.
After acting out at sea China South, China re-create the atmosphere around the beach Pacific, South America heated up.
Launching the Los Angeles Times, the condition was triggered by the action of a giant fishing fleet China consisting of about 300 ships moving from the shores of the Galapagos seaport into the waters off Peru.
On Tuesday afternoon, in a speech at the United Nations General Assembly, President Trump denounced China on a wide range of issues, from the coronavirus to human rights.
He also highlighted China’s fishing action and maritime behavior, saying that the country dumps millions of tonnes of plastic and trash into the oceans, overfishing in other countries’ waters and destroying coral reefs.
Shortly after, the US Embassy in Peru issued a tweet saying the Chinese mega-flotilla was off its coast.
The US embassy in Peru has accused the flotilla of changing the ship’s name and deactivating GPS tracking to limit surveillance of fleet activity.
“Overfishing can cause enormous ecological and economic damage,” the tweet said.
Peru cannot afford such losses.
That prompted a swift response by the Chinese Embassy in Peru, which showed that the US lied about the fleet’s environmental and maritime integrity.
“We hope the Peruvian people are not deceived by false information,” said a statement written in Spanish as reported by the LA Times.
Peru and Ecuador both have large fishing fleets and rely heavily on seafood.
According to the World Bank, in 2018, the two countries caught 4.5 million metric tons of fish, about the same as the United States, but only about a quarter of what China harvested from the sea.
Both countries benefit from the Humboldt Current, a flow of cool, nutrient-rich waters off the Pacific coast of South America that helps feed one of the world’s most productive fishing grounds.
This year, China’s fishing fleet has threatened the security of food sources.
This is the latest conflict involving China’s push to harvest seafood from oceans around the world.
Starting in July, the Ecuadorian government and international environmental groups began tracking the large fleet, which was parked on the shores of the Galapagos Marine Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage site and Ecuadorian national park.
This nature reserve covers more than 51,000 square miles of protected ocean surrounding the archipelago, which is located some 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador.
More than 20% of the species found in this reserve are unique to the archipelago.
The LA Times said that according to a report released by Oceana, which tracks the fleet, China’s fishing fleet recorded about 73,000 hours of fishing between July 13 and August 13 and accounted for 99% of fishing activity on the reserve’s perimeter.
On August 2, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement saying the US was supporting Ecuador’s efforts to prevent China from engaging in illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing.
He added that the US supports countries whose economies and natural resources are threatened by Chinese-flagged vessels. PRC is an acronym for the People’s Republic of China.
Later that month, the United States Coast Guard dispatched one of its ships, Bertholf, to the area, in coordination with the Ecuadorian navy.
The joint force patrols more than 3,000 miles in international and Ecuadorian waters to monitor the huge fleet.
According to government and advocacy sources, a large fleet has moved south in recent days toward Peruvian waters.
Like the United States and other countries, Ecuador has an exclusive economic zone 200 nautical miles off its coast, over which it has sovereign rights over all resources.
According to news reports, the government is discussing whether it can expand the zone to 350 nautical miles.
Data released by the LA Times showed that China’s worldwide fishing fleet is huge, with an estimated 17,000 ships sailing in waters far from China’s coast.
In contrast, the US reports about 300 fishing vessels in international waters.
(Barratut Taqiyyah Rafie)
This article has been published on Kontan.co.id with the title 300 Chinese ships moving into the waters of Peru and Ecuador, South American coast tense!
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