China's Weaponized Fishing Fleet

American Thinker ^ | 25 Jul, 2021 | Steven Neill

[MtnClimber]

After years of overfishing, the Chinese have depleted the fish from their home waters, causing the government to subsidize its fleet for a planetary hunt for sea life with no holds barred.

Japan started recording derelict North Korean fishing vessels washing ashore in 2011, according to reporting by CNN’s Hilary Whiteman and Mairi Mackay. Since then, 63 on average of the "ghost ships" have annually come ashore. Most are empty, but some contain dead bodies and occasionally a skeletal crew. Generally, the ships are old, underpowered, and lacking GPS.

Initially, authorities assumed the vessels belonged to crews who were trying to defect from North Korea. Or "climate change" had caused the squids to move away from North Korean shores forcing the fishermen to travel dangerously far out to sea, where they died from exposure.

But by using satellite data, a team of researchers from the conservation group Global Fishing Watch pieced together the most likely explanation, as reported in last year's NBC article "Ghost Ships":

China is sending a previously invisible armada of industrial boats to illegally fish in North Korean waters, violently displacing smaller North Korean boats and spearheading a decline in once-abundant squid stocks of more than 70 percent.

In March 2020, the United Nations received anonymous reports from two separate nations alerting them to illegal Chinese fishing within North Korea's exclusive economic zone. The statements included testimonies from a Chinese crew confirming their government knew of the illegal fishing in North Korean waters.

The Chinese fleet operating in those waters became known as the "Dark Fleet" because they often turned off their transponders when entering North Korean waters, hiding them from land-based authorities for months.

[MtnClimber]

Where are the environmentalists on this one?

[Anti-Bubba182]

Environmentalists don’t criticize Communist regimes only free countries.

[PIF]

“After years of overfishing, the Chinese ...”

—
The word “overfishing” hardly does justice to what the Chinese are doing - something akin to what the Russians did to the whale population in the 1950s (https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3092801/posts). Decimating? Nope. Raping? Pillaging? Plundering? What single word describes the total harvest of every living creature in a given area? Annihilation?

So lets re-write that opening, “After years of annihilating all sea life, the Chinese ...

[moovova]

"China has just signed an agreement with the Papua New Guinea government to build "a $200 million 'comprehensive multi-functional fishery industrial park' on the island of Daru," "

“Will you walk into my parlor?” said the spider to the fly; “’Tis the prettiest little parlor that ever you did spy. The way into my parlor is up a winding stair, And I have many pretty things to show when you are there.”

[PIF]

Fun fact - the Chinese fishing fleet counts for nearly one half of all the world’s commercial fishing vessels, and are manned by CCM (Chinese Maritime Militia) troops, who are part and parcel of the CCP quest for world domination by owning the world’s natural resources.

[Army ret QM]

Ask the Canadians about what overfishing does to the ecosystem. The North Atlantic cod are almost completely gone thanks to overfishing. Completely changed the ecosystem and the cod are not returning even after years of “controlled” fishing.

[arthurus]

We had better start arming our own boats for when the Chinese warboats start showing up in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.

[sauropod]

China is sending a previously invisible armada of industrial boats to illegally fish in North Korean waters, violently displacing smaller North Korean boats and spearheading a decline in once-abundant squid stocks of more than 70 percent.

I remember reading here an article about how China has a real food supply problem. This fits right in with that.

[Renfrew]

“We had better start arming our own boats for when the Chinese warboats start showing up in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.”

The problem is that’s a battle we can’t win:

*American fishing fleet 2017: 8,623
*Chinese fishing fleet 2017: 738,218

That we have 480 ships in our navy doesn’t do much to alter the balance in a coming naval conflict.

[Candor7]

The Drak Fleet scourge, coming to a sea near you.

They have already scourged the Grand Banks of canada with huge red Chinese Factory ships, depleting and destroying fish stocks.

Under Trudeu, the Canadian Government writes complaints to the UN.

The Candian Navy? Out to lunch doing politically correct training on gilligans Island with their dozen or so tiny, active coast guard cutters on the east coast.

Cnadas largest ships are Arleigh Burke missile platforms
with a single deck gun and some gatlings.No torpedoes anywhere.And they do not dare touch China for fear that Canada will lose agricultural trade with China.

[blueunicorn6]

The big dog ate all his food and is now eating the little dog’s food.

[MtnClimber]

"The big dog ate all his food and is now eating the little dog’s food."

The big dog thinks it will find the legendary doggie cheeseburger at the bottom of the little dog's food bowl.

[zek157]

I had never heard of Soviet whaling/sea raping before this.

Thanks for the heads up.

[PIF]

There’s another article similar in nature about the early days of plutonium manufacture in the USSR (I have no link, sorry). Eye opening, if you can find it. Workers handled raw plutonium, gloveless in white papers suits ...