A Chinese fishing boat operating in the Indian Ocean has sunk and all 39 crew members on board are missing, state media reported on Wednesday.
The CCTV television network reported that the sinking occurred around 03:00 on Tuesday. The crew consisted of Chinese, Indonesian and Filipinos, according to the same source.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Chinese Premier Li Qiang have ordered overseas Chinese diplomats, as well as the agriculture and transportation ministries, to support search and rescue efforts.
CCTV did not identify the exact location of the sinking, only that it took place in the center of the vast Indian Ocean, which stretches from southern Asia and the Arabian Peninsula to eastern Africa and western Australia.
The Philippine Coast Guard Command Center said today that it is monitoring the situation and coordinating with the Chinese embassy in Manila and search and rescue teams operating near the ship’s last known location.
Lupenglaiyuanyu’s No. 8 ship was based in the eastern coastal province of Shandong and operated by the Penglaiyingyu company, according to Chinese media. She was also identified by the hull numbers 18 and 028.
China is believed to operate the world’s largest fishing fleet. Many vessels remain at sea for months or even years at a time, supported by China’s state maritime security agencies and an extensive network of support vessels.
There is no information about the cause of the sinking.
Chinese squid fishing boats have been accused of using wide nets to illegally catch already overfished tuna as part of a surge in unregulated activity in the Indian Ocean, according to a report published in 2021 by a watchdog group. based in Norway, which highlighted growing concerns about the lack of international cooperation to protect marine species on the high seas.
Illegally operating Chinese fishing vessels have been known to navigate “in the dark”, with their mandatory tracking device providing a vessel’s position turned off, transmitting intermittently or providing false identifiers. If that’s the case with the wreck, rescue and recovery efforts could become much more difficult.
Source: TSF
