A team of researchers from Shanghai Ocean University aboard the Song research vessel left port in June 2022 for a voyage to map fishery resources in the Western Pacific, a project funded by the Chinese Agriculture Ministry’s Fisheries Bureau.
A ceremony to see the vessel off featured a red banner hung on the ship’s side declaring "Comprehensive Scientific Survey of Fishery Resources in the High Seas of the Western Pacific Ocean.” A statement from Shanghai Ocean said that 27 researchers will spend 100 days monitoring fishery resources in the international waters of the West Pacific.
China, one of the largest shipbuilding nations in the world, has in the past two decades considerably expanded its navy. Also recently, two Chinese patrol vessels have left Qingdao for a 45-day patrol of the North Pacific, the third such patrol conducted by China. Operated by the China Coast Guard the two vessels will patrol for illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing activity, according to a statement from the Coast Guard. The patrols are being done under United Nations law.
China is a member of the North Pacific Fisheries Commission (NPFC) is a regional fisheries management organization established by the Convention on the Conservation and Management of High Seas Fisheries Resources in the North Pacific Ocean.
China has used investments in the fishing and seafood processing sectors to establish a foothold in the Pacific, according to a report issued by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council – one of the eight regional fishery management councils operated by NOAA Fisheries, a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce. The report noted a huge increase in the number of Chinese fishing vessels in the region in the past two decades.
Manny Dueñas, a member of the WPRFMC representing Guam Fishermen's Cooperative Association and one of the report’s authors, called on U.S. policymakers to make it easier for the American fleet to fish in the region.
Photo courtesy of Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
