China has the world’s largest Distant Water Fishing Fleet, with 38% of the total vessels.
In 2020, a huge fleet of 340 Chinese fishing vessels descended on the waters off the Galápagos Marine Reserve and plundered vast quantities of squid and fish. The fleet was confronted by the Ecuadorian navy.
This year (2021) maritime campaigning group Sea Shepherd took its Ocean Warrior ship to the area to see what was going on.
Two investigative journalists from The Associated Press and Univision joined the Ocean Warrior and her crew on this covert mission to investigate the activities of the notorious Chinese squid fleet.
The Ocean Warrior found a number of vessels owned by Pingtan Marine Enterprise Ltd, one of largest companies involved in China’s Distant Water Fishing Fleet.
The Sea Shepherd crew and the journalists discovered ships engaged in suspected illegal fishing, giving false MMSI identification numbers, and employing forced labour workers from Indonesia.
This film, Distant Waters, tells the story of what Sea Shepherd found.
Sea Shepherd is an international, non-profit marine conservation organization that engages in direct action campaigns to defend wildlife, and conserve and protect the world’s oceans from illegal exploitation and environmental destruction.