FU YUAN YU, NI HAO!
It was just past midnight on the 7th of March 2015, and there was a
huge audience gathering to witness the deployment of the Autonomous Underwater
Vehicle (AUV) (for the first time for most of us). The Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution (WHOI) team was ready to put this intelligent robot into the deep
ocean to collect important information from the seafloor, then a bright white
light and a blinking red light caught the eyes of the scientists.
They contacted the bridge and were told that there is a
Chinese vessel “Fu Yuan Yu” (福远渔) in the vicinity. The Chinese vessel did
not respond to the bridge’s repeated hailing. So, we, the Singaporeans, were
activated to communicate with the Chinese in Mandarin.
“Hello, Fu Yuan Yu. We are an American research vessel. We
are of no harm. We would like to deploy our research equipment and just want to
know if you have any fishing gears in the waters, so that we do not damage your
and our equipment. Please reply. Thank you.”
There was no response, despite multiple attempts to reach
them.
We did an internet search on “Fu Yuan Yu” and found that the
Fujian-based company Pingtan Marine Enterprise Ltd. has a fleet of 129 vessels
with the same name (www.ptmarine.com/fishing-operations/our-vessels).
“Fu Yuan Yu” can be literally
translated as “Fujian long-distance fishermen”.
According to various sources, several of their vessels have been caught for illegal
fishing by countries such as Argentina (en.mercopress.com/2013/07/24/argentina-
confirms-one-million-dollars-fines-on-each-of-four-vessels-caught-illegally-fishing),
Fiji (www.paclii.org/journals/fJSPL/vol10/5.shtml)
and Indonesia (johnib.wordpress.com/2015/02/28/indonesias-maritime-affairs-and-fisheries-minister-orders-a-crackdown-on-illegal-chinese-fishing/).
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) raised concern about “Fu Yuan Yu” conducting
illegal fishing on bluefin tuna. (http://econews.com.au/uncategorized/wwf-raises-concern-about-illegal-tuna-fishing/).
We were later informed that the name of the vessel is “Fu
Yuan Yu 022”.
It is a longliner http://www.wcpfc.int/node/18193and appears to fish frequently in the North Pacific Ocean where we conduct our
surveys.
After assessing the risk of the AUV getting caught in their
fishing gears, we decided to abort the operation and amended our survey programme
for the entire day. Luckily, we have enough buffer time to complete the tasks
in time.
That is the fun of deep sea research. You never know what
people (or animals) you are going to meet in the vast oceans! A little of
excitement before we end our shift!
Written by: Chee Kong Chim National University of Singapore
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