China has impounded a fishmeal processing ship in its own waters for illegally buying small fish, in a move that reflects what has been happening in West African waters.
The Lu Wei Yu 6088 has been brought in to Dandong port near the North Korean border after being chased by the China Coast Guard for purchasing fish during the closed season currently underway in the East China Sea.
The vessel was built in 2014 for Shandong Weihai Huawang Marine Biological Engineering Co., and is regarded as China’s largest fishing vessel, with a length overall (LOA) of 154 meters and a width of 25 meters. The shipbuilding firm said the vessel's four processing lines are capable of turning 550,000 tons of “low-quality small fish” into 55,000 tons of fishmeal worth CNY 550 million (USD 78.5 million, EUR 69 million).
Launched as China’s largest seafood processing ship at a cost of CNY 200 million (USD 28 million, EUR 26 million) at the Cheng Lang Shipyard in Nanjing in 2014, the ship is also known as the Diao Yu No 1, named after Japan’s Senkaku islands, which China claims.
China’s move against the massive fishmeal vessel comes during a week where the country’s state-run media highlighted the commencement of the first Chinese fishing moratorium in important squid spawning grounds in the southwest Atlantic. It’s not clear if the moratorium, which applies to Chinese distant water fleets from July to September, will be enforced by Chinese patrol vessels.
The move was portrayed in the mainland press as a major step in protecting fishing resources required by Chinese fishing firms and processors. China has increased its capacity to patrol its own waters and further afield in recent years, investing significantly in Coast Guard fleets. In 2018, a super patrol vessel, the Hai Yun 153, was launched from the Binhai district of Tianjin port and billed as China’s “biggest coast guard vessel” to date. The vessel was promoted as a means of enforcing fishing bans in Chinese waters, while also monitoring the wide Yellow Sea and China Southern Sea.
Photo courtesy of Igor Grochev/Shutterstock
