The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture has announced measures against fishing vessels and their operators after a number of Chinese vessel shave been intercepted engaged in illegal fishing activities in West African waters.
Lian Run 34 and Lian Run 47, owned by Lian Run Pelagic Fishery Company Ltd. were arrested in Guinea during a joint patrol between Greenpeace International, Greenpeace Africa and Guinean fisheries inspectors. One of the vessels was using illegal fishing nets and both of them had shark fins on board which is forbidden under Guinean law.
The Chinese authorities have also established that the two vessels were fishing in Guinea without official permission to do so by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture. The ministry had only handed out permission for these vessels to fish in Ghana.
Considering the company was also involved in three IUU cases in 2015, the ministry decided to cancel the company’s Distant Water Fisheries certificate. Besides that, a whole year of fuel subsidy for the two vessels was cancelled, and the skippers are facing unspecified punishment as well.
Fu Yuan Yu 379 owned by the Fujian Pingtan Hengli Fishery Company Ltd was also caught during that same patrol due to a number of infringements of Guinea’s fisheries law including illegal net adjustments.
This vessel also had its fuel subsidies cancelled in September 2017.
Fu Hai Yu 1111 and Fu Hai Yu 2222 owned by Cangzhou Bohaixinqu Fuhai had its subsidies cancelled. The vessels were caught red handed during a joint patrol between Greenpeace and Sierra Leone authorities in the spring of 2017 and arrested for carrying illegal nets, having no standard logbook onboard, and offloading catch without proper authorisation.
