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On this edition of Your Call, we rebroadcast our conservation with Los Angeles Times investigative reporter Susanne Rust about Ecuador s Galapagos Islands, one of the richest marine ecosystems in the world.
The islands and the surrounding marine reserve have been called a unique ‘living museum and showcase of evolution’, but COVID-19 has laid bare the vulnerability of an economic model that is 90% dependent upon tourism. The islands are also under threat by Chinese fishing fleets. Many vessels are designed to hold 1,000 tons a catch.
Guests:
Dr. Marla Valentine, illegal fishing and transparency analyst at Oceana
Web Resources:
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Long a topic discussed in connection with the South China Sea, illegal Chinese fishing vessels are of increasing concern for Pacific Island nations.
As recently as early this week, the archipelago nation of Palau, east of the Philippines and north of New Guinea, announced that it had intercepted and detained a Chinese fishing vessel and six smaller boats in its territorial waters after it was confirmed the vessel had entered unlawfully and was illegally fishing sea cucumber.
The fishing vessel was apprehended in Helen Reef, Palau’s most southernmost region, by a Guardian-class patrol boat that Australia had delivered to Palau in September.