Why are Chinese boats catching so many fish off the Galápagos Islands?
A single country has accounted for about 80 percent of the fishing in the international waters just off Argentina, Ecuador and Peru this year. And it is not a South American country. It is China.
In recent years, hundreds of Chinese fishing vessels have begun to operate almost 24 hours a day, seven days a week, off the coast of South America. The ships move with the seasons, from Ecuador to Peru to Argentina. China has focused on these faraway waters after depleting fish stocks closer to its own shores.
You can see the scale of this fishing effort in the maps that are part of a Times project by Steven Lee Myers, Agnes Chang, Derek Watkins and Claire Fu.
China’s fishing expansion is part of a much larger story, of course. As the world’s most populous country, and one with an economy that has grown rapidly in recent decades, China has a growing global footprint — economically, diplomatically and militarily. It needs so much fish to feed a middle class that has become vastly larger over the past generation.
China’s rise has brought great benefits to its citizens: Many fewer of them live in poverty. But that rise is also creating problems for the rest of the world. China’s leaders have been willing to flout international law to accomplish their goals. Even when China is following the law, it sometimes harms other countries for the sake of helping itself (which, to be fair, powerful nations have long done).
The fishing expansion is a good example. The Times project focuses on South America, because China’s fishing around the Galápagos Islands has become a flash point. Ecuador’s government accused Chinese boats of fishing too close to Ecuador’s shores, and both local fishing crews and environmental groups are worried that China is depleting local fish stocks.
“Our sea can’t handle this pressure anymore,” said Alberto Andrade, a fisher from the Galápagos, who has organized an effort to expand protections. “The industrial fleets are razing the stocks, and we are afraid that in the future there will be no more fishery.”
Some experts are also worried that China is underreporting how much fish it catches: Suspicious movement patterns suggest that some ships may be turning off their transponders to hide some catches. “The concern is the sheer number of ships and the lack of accountability, to know how much is being fished out and where it’s going to,” said Marla Valentine, an oceanographer with the conservation group Oceana.
These issues apply to more than just the waters off South America. Steven Lee Myers, the lead reporter on the project and a former Beijing bureau chief for The Times, told me that China had also expanded its fishing off the coasts of Africa and South Pacific nations, as well as Antarctica.
“It reflects the global economic reach of China,” Steven said. “Everyone knows it’s a huge and growing economy, despite the latest headwinds, but the idea that it built a commercial fishing fleet like this seems to have huge implications, for the environment, of course, but also diplomacy and geopolitics, even national security across the Pacific — which is why the Trump and Biden administrations both focused on it.”
You can see the project here — including the story of Hai Feng 718, a large carrier vessel that keeps the fishing boats supplied and ferries their catches back to China, so that the boats can keep fishing, without pause.
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Jury selection begins today in the trial of members of the Oath Keepers, a far-right militia, who were charged with seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
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An independent analysis found that President Biden’s student-debt relief plan could cost about $400 billion, or roughly 2 percent of the country’s annual economic output.
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Lives Lived: As New Jersey’s Democratic governor in the early 1990s, Jim Florio banned assault weapons and fought pollution. Tax hikes undid his re-election bid. He died at 85.
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Monday night rivalry: The Dallas Cowboys held off their N.F.C. East rival New York Giants 23-16 last night. Dallas QB Cooper Rush, thrust into the spotlight in Week 1, held his own as his defense took care of the rest. The game closed out a topsy-turvy Week 3.
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An N.F.L. superstar in a scary accident: Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett was involved in a one-car crash leaving the team practice facility yesterday afternoon. His injuries were not life-threatening and he was transported to the hospital, where his agent said he was “alert and responsive.”
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A TikTok crackdown
On TikTok, the same features that make videos of dances go viral also make it easier to get conspiracy theories in front of millions of people. Attempts to limit falsehoods, including by banning hashtags, haven’t always worked, as The Times has explained: #StopTheSteallll, made to get around a ban on #StopTheSteal and spread disinformation about the 2020 election, received nearly a million views before it was disabled.
Even before the 2020 election, TikTok said that it was taking down videos, making it easier for users to report misinformation and working with fact checkers. Most recently, the company has announced steps to stop politicians from spreading or benefiting from misinformation, including by restricting political campaigning.
Related: TikTok may face a $29 million fine for failing to protect children’s privacy in Britain.
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Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — David
P.S. On his “In the Bubble” podcast, Andy Slavitt — a former White House official — talked with David Leonhardt about the threats to American democracy.
Here’s today’s front page.
“The Daily” is about pandemic fraud. On “The Ezra Klein Show,” Patrick Collison explains why scientific progress seems to have stalled.
Matthew Cullen, Alain Delaqueriere, Natasha Frost, Lauren Hard, Lauren Jackson, Ian Prasad Philbrick and Ashley Wu contributed to The Morning. You can reach the team at themorning@nytimes.com.
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