Chinese fishing fleet off Peru sparks Twitter war between Washington and Beijing
- The 250 ships were previously fishing for giant squid near the Galapagos Islands off Ecuador, but were detected this week by the Peruvian navy
- US embassy in Lima says vessels have history of avoiding tracking and seem to be ‘dumping plastic’ pollutants
Peru’s Navy on Friday was carefully watching a fleet of around 250 Chinese fishing vessels that had sailed just outside the Andean country’s waters, angering the domestic fishing industry and sparking a Twitter war between Washington and Beijing.
The fleet, previously fishing for giant squid near the Galapagos Islands off Ecuador, was detected this week by Peruvian naval forces some 230 miles (370km) off the coast of the country, the local maritime authority reported.
“Our navy is making overflights ensuring there are no such vessels within the scope of our jurisdiction, which is 200 miles,” Defence Minister Jorge Chávez told reporters on Friday.
The commander of the coastguard operations, Rear Admiral Jorge Portocarrero, said the fleet was identified and located after a low-altitude flight of an exploration aircraft and a patrol vessel between Sunday and Wednesday.
02:06
Nearly half of Chinese vessels fishing near the Galapagos cut off communications, Ecuador says
“Not all are in a single place, they are scattered,” he said, adding there were 250 to 270 ships. “We have no evidence of them having entered our maritime space.”