Chinese Fishing Armada Dominates Oceans Worldwide

Beijing is using updated tactics to gain control of global fishing grounds, denuding seas, and causing food insecurity and unemployment, a new report states.

Illegal Chinese fishing boats are seen in neutral waters on June 10, 2016, in Ganghwa Island, South Korea. South Korean Defense Ministry via Getty Images

China now reigns supreme over global fishing by dominating the high seas with more than 6,000 ships, a flotilla more than triple the size of the next largest national fleet, according to a report by the Outlaw Ocean Project.

Research by the environmental nonprofit based in Washington shows that more than one-third of the world’s seafood stocks have been overfished, largely because of Beijing’s “industrial-scale efforts” to harvest fish, squid, shrimp, and other shellfish from the world’s oceans.