Panatag Island (Scarborough Shoal). File Photo
The vessels — typically dozens of small fishing boat that are accompanied by larger “motherships” — were described as “China’s most destructive boats,” as they destroy large swaths of coral reef to get at the giant clams, which are transported to Hainan for processing into jewelry and statuary.
Their activities had dropped sharply from 2016 to late 2018 in the wake of an arbitral tribunal finding that China had violated international obligations but the AMTI-CSIS said that before the end of last year, “satellite imagery has shown these fleets operating frequently at Scarborough Shoal (Panatag Islands) and throughout the Paracels, including at Bombay Reef.”
The ships normally drag the reinforced props out their outboard motors across the reef to break up the coral but in Scarborough they are using tubes hooked up to engines to extract clams, which local fishers claim is a destructive practice that spreads sediment.
“This appears to be an adaptation of a tactic employed by salvagers whereby a high-pressure pump creates enough suction to remove sediment from the seabed,” AMTI-CMSS said, adding that “it is clear that Chinese authorities are aware of and condoning these environmentally destructive practices.”
Broadcast network ABS-CBN, it noted, has filmed the Chinese Coast Guard maintaining a constant presence at Scarborough Shoal, previously administered by the Philippines but now occupied by China in 2012.
Imagery from Dec. 7, 2018 and March 8, 2019 show evidence of new scarring at Scarborough, which was already damaged from earlier clam harvesting up to 2016.
With the Spratly Islands, meanwhile, AMTI-CSIS said it had not found clear evidence of renewed harvesting. It pointed out, however, that “on April 7, during the same period that Chinese maritime militia vessels were clustering around Philippine-occupied Loaita (Kota) Island and Loita Cay, a mothership and a number of small boats were present at nearby Lankiam (Panata) Cay.”
“The mothership was about 20 meters long while those seen at Bombay Reef are typically closer to 30 meters, but the smaller boats are roughly the same dimensions,” it added.
While the absence of new scarring at Lankiam Cay would have indicated that no clam harvesting had taken place, AMTI-CSIS warned that the new methods being used at Scarborough “suggest that documenting the activities of these Chinese fleets has become more difficult.”
“Unlike the prop scarring on shallow reef surfaces, destruction caused by high-pressure water pumps used in deeper waters is unlikely to be visible in satellite imagery,” it added.
“That suggests that for every clam harvesting operation that is documented in the South China Sea, others will go unnoticed. But with tens of thousands of acres of reef surface already damaged or destroyed and fish stocks teetering on the brink of collapse, the effects of this wanton destruction of the marine environment will be felt across the region.”
The vessels — typically dozens of small fishing boat that are accompanied by larger “motherships” — were described as “China’s most destructive boats,” as they destroy large swaths of coral reef to get at the giant clams, which are transported to Hainan for processing into jewelry and statuary.
Their activities had dropped sharply from 2016 to late 2018 in the wake of an arbitral tribunal finding that China had violated international obligations but the AMTI-CSIS said that before the end of last year, “satellite imagery has shown these fleets operating frequently at Scarborough Shoal (Panatag Islands) and throughout the Paracels, including at Bombay Reef.”
The ships normally drag the reinforced props out their outboard motors across the reef to break up the coral but in Scarborough they are using tubes hooked up to engines to extract clams, which local fishers claim is a destructive practice that spreads sediment.
“This appears to be an adaptation of a tactic employed by salvagers whereby a high-pressure pump creates enough suction to remove sediment from the seabed,” AMTI-CMSS said, adding that “it is clear that Chinese authorities are aware of and condoning these environmentally destructive practices.”
Broadcast network ABS-CBN, it noted, has filmed the Chinese Coast Guard maintaining a constant presence at Scarborough Shoal, previously administered by the Philippines but now occupied by China in 2012.
Imagery from Dec. 7, 2018 and March 8, 2019 show evidence of new scarring at Scarborough, which was already damaged from earlier clam harvesting up to 2016.
With the Spratly Islands, meanwhile, AMTI-CSIS said it had not found clear evidence of renewed harvesting. It pointed out, however, that “on April 7, during the same period that Chinese maritime militia vessels were clustering around Philippine-occupied Loaita (Kota) Island and Loita Cay, a mothership and a number of small boats were present at nearby Lankiam (Panata) Cay.”
“The mothership was about 20 meters long while those seen at Bombay Reef are typically closer to 30 meters, but the smaller boats are roughly the same dimensions,” it added.
While the absence of new scarring at Lankiam Cay would have indicated that no clam harvesting had taken place, AMTI-CSIS warned that the new methods being used at Scarborough “suggest that documenting the activities of these Chinese fleets has become more difficult.”
“Unlike the prop scarring on shallow reef surfaces, destruction caused by high-pressure water pumps used in deeper waters is unlikely to be visible in satellite imagery,” it added.
“That suggests that for every clam harvesting operation that is documented in the South China Sea, others will go unnoticed. But with tens of thousands of acres of reef surface already damaged or destroyed and fish stocks teetering on the brink of collapse, the effects of this wanton destruction of the marine environment will be felt across the region.”
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