Business

China’s fishing vessels on India’s security radar

February 5, 2023

Synopsis

China’s extensive use of DWF vessels in the high seas has increasingly become an environmental hazard, especially in the Northern Indian Ocean region, they said.

Spurt in China's DWF vessels in high seas on radar of Indian security set-up — (Representational image) Illegal Chinese fishing fleet evade marine radar by disabling transponders close to EEZ of other countries, to avoid being detected.

India is closely monitoring a sudden spurt in China’s distant water fishing (DWF) vessels in the high seas, including Indian Ocean Region and India’s immediate neighbourhood, as the vessels could be used for espionage activities, said people familiar with the matter.

China’s extensive use of DWF vessels in the high seas has increasingly become an environmental hazard, especially in the Northern Indian Ocean region, they said.

There has been a surge in the activities of unregistered Chinese fishing vessels near India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Iran and Oman. More than 392 Chinese illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing incidents occurred in the Indian Ocean in 2021, compared to 379 in 2020, according to Indian officials.

Further, the Maldives and Sri Lanka have reported the presence of Chinese DWF vessels such as squid jiggers, trawlers and long liners in their waters. Iran faces a similar challenge as Chinese trawlers are taking close to 46,000 tonnes of commercial fish. Last year, Chinese spy ships in Sri Lankan waters sent alarm bells ringing in New Delhi.

This situation is alarming as China has deployed its DWF vessels across oceans around the world and has also been found guilty of trespassing into the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of more than 80 countries while fishing outside its own EEZ, said the people cited earlier. New research by the Policy Research Group shows that China has more than 18,000 boats in the world’s oceans, they said.

China has consistently topped the charts in catch and seafood production, producing about 12 million tons of live weight, almost double that of Indonesia, the second highest producer. It is evident from this scale that Chinese DWF are engaged in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing activities, said the people. This has an adverse impact not only on the environment but also on local economies, on a scale yet uncharted, they said.

Although China has banned bottom trawling within its own territory, it has encouraged its DWF vessels to conduct trawling activities close to the EEZ of other countries in Africa, South America, Russia and littoral states of Indian Ocean, South and mid-Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.

Illegal Chinese fishing fleet evade marine radar by disabling transponders close to EEZ of other countries, to avoid being detected by the automatic identification system, a practice known as maritime radar evasion, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The captains of Chinese vessels disable their transponders while engaging in illicit fishing. It has been seen that the automatic identification system of these boats suffers transmission pauses at least eight hours near the EEZ of other countries, said the people.

( Originally published on Feb 05, 2023 )