Tag: fishing

ROK Coast Guard Kills Three During Confrontation With Illegal Chinese Fishing Boat

| October 2, 2016

Maybe the ROK is taking the approach President Duerte takes for drug dealers and applying it to Chinese fishermen who continue to plague the country’s waters:

Three Chinese fishermen were killed on Thursday in a fire that broke out on their boat when South Korean coastguard men trying to apprehend them for illegal fishing threw flash grenades into a room they were hiding in, a South Korean official said.

Disputes over illegal fishing are an irritant in relations between China and U.S. ally South Korea, even as their economic relations grow close. They also share concern about North Korea’s nuclear weapon and missile programs.

The three men were believed to have suffocated, a coastguard official in the South Korean port city of Mokpo said, adding that the incident was being investigated.

The fire broke out in the boat’s steering room, the official, who is not authorized to speak with media and declined to be identified, told Reuters by telephone.

South Korean authorities were questioning the 14 surviving crew and coastguard members involved in the operation, the official added.

China’s Foreign Ministry said it had lodged a protest with Seoul about the incident.

Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a daily news briefing Beijing was also urging South Korea to hold a “comprehensive and objective” investigation into the incident, along with China.  [Reuters via reader tip]

You can read more at the link, but definitely compared to the past where these fishermen having actually murdered Korean Coast Guard personnel it is clear ROK authorities have taken a more aggressive stance to stop them.

Further Reading:

https://www.rokdrop.net/2014/10/korean-coast-guard-kills-chinese-fishermen-during-raid/

ROK Coast Guard Arrests Illegal Chinese Fishing Boat Found Carrying Drugs

| June 28, 2016

What gets me is that the ROK authorities did not jail this Chinese fisherman, but instead just booked him and let him go:

This photo taken on June 24, 2016, shows a Chinese fishing boat at a port in Incheon, west of Seoul. The Coast Guard seized the boat the previous day that allegedly operated illegally near the inter-Korean maritime border. (Yonhap

The captain of a Chinese fishing boat was arrested on Friday over allegedly operating near the inter-Korean maritime border and using an illegal drug, the South Korean Coast Guard said.

Coast guard officers found methamphetamine inside the boat that they seized in waters off Socheong Island in Incheon, west of Seoul, the previous day.

On Thursday, they confiscated 0.12 gram of the drug and an inhaler from the ship’s pilothouse after taking it to a coast guard station in Incheon. During an investigation into the captain, whose name was withheld, the 48-year-old man confessed that he had bought them shortly before the boat left the port of Donggang in China’s Liaoning Province around 5 p.m. on June 9, they said.

The captain, who purchased the drug and the inhaler from an acquaintance for 240 yuan and 20 yuan respectively, is suspected of inhaling the stimulant three times when the boat sailed near the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the inter-Korean de facto western maritime border, this month.

He has also administered the drug about 10 times in China since last year, they said. “I used the drug in secret at the pilothouse to beat fatigue,” he was quoted as saying. He tested positive in a urine test for the drug.

The Coast Guard plans to book the Chinese man without physical detention on charges of suspected violation of the illegal fishing control law concerning South Korea’s exclusive economic zone. In addition, it will book him on suspicion of violating the drug control law.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but I maintain that the ROK should jail these guys and auction off their boats.  This would be needed to deterrent to stop the illegal fishing.

North Korea Gives Harsh Response To ROK Crackdown On Illegal Chinese Fishing Boats

| June 23, 2016

This announcement by North Korea makes it pretty clear that they are deliberately organizing the Chinese fishing boats to intrude into South Korea as a form of asymmetric warfare against the South:

A Chinese fishing boat escorted by a South Korean Coast Guard vessel enters the port of Incheon, west of Seoul, on June 15, 2016, after being seized by the military police team over illegal fishing in the neutral waters of the Han River estuary. (Yonhap)

North Korea on Monday slammed South Korea for its operation with the United Nations Command (UNC) to repel Chinese fishing boats operating illegally in neutral waters between the two Koreas, calling the move a “military provocation.”

This marks the North’s first official reaction to South Korea and the UNC’s joint crackdown on Chinese fishing vessels operating in the neutral waters of the Han River estuary.

Fishing vessels that are officially registered with either South or North Korea are allowed into the neutral waters. Each side could send military police officers into the no man’s land to enforce rules under the armistice agreement.

South Korea’s move is aimed at “escalating the intrusion into the hotspot waters in the West Sea of Korea into the inland to secure a chance for military provocation,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in an English dispatch.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but I continue to believe if the ROK seizes the illegal Chinese fishing boats and then auctions them off and gives jail time to the crew members that would end the incentive for these people to illegally fish in South Korean waters.

Picture of the Day: South Korea’s First Overseas Fishing Boat

| November 10, 2015

South Korea's first overseas fishing boat

This photo dated June 26, 1957, shows fishermen aboard the Jinam-ho, South Korea’s first overseas fishing boat, ahead of a voyage. People like them had served as an economic pillar for the country during hard times, sending home money earned from their catch. Government estimates show they remitted some US$87 million to South Korea from 1966-1987. Many of the fishermen died in foreign waters, and the fisheries ministry started a campaign in 2014 to bring back their remains. (Photo provided by the Korea Overseas Fisheries Association) (Yonhap)

Families Upset With Lack of Attention of Fishing Boat Tragedy

| February 11, 2015

I understand how these families members are upset, but the sinking of the fishing boat off the coast of Russia that resulted in 53 people dead or missing is not going to get much attention in Korea because the vast majority of the people who died were foreigners.  Plus it happened so far out at sea where there was no news cameras compared to the Sewol ferry boat tragedy:

On a cold afternoon last month, a handful of demonstrators carried signs along a road in downtown Seoul, attracting little attention.

The lack of interest was troubling for the small group, whose loved ones disappeared on Dec. 1 when the Korean-owned trawler Oryong 501 sank in the Bering Sea off the coast of Russia.

Six Koreans were confirmed dead in the sinking of the 1,753-ton vessel; five others remain unaccounted for. In all, 27 men, including Filipinos and Indonesians, have been confirmed dead and 26 are listed as missing.

Some of the Korean family members want the owner of the ship, Sajo Group, held accountable, saying the company sent out a non-seaworthy boat and is evading its responsibilities. They also want the government to apologize for what they believe was lax monitoring of the firm.

“We demand that Sajo Group be punished for letting a malfunctioning fishing boat go out to sea; for an apology from the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries; and a pledge that the ministry will properly supervise future ocean operations,” said Ko Jang-un, a representative for the families, whose brother has been confirmed dead.

Ma Sun-sook, who also lost her brother, said, “You can’t call it an accident if the sinking of the vessel was predictable.”  [Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link, but the boat took on water during a bad storm and a bad water pump resulted in the boat not being able to extract the water and it sunk.  It had been known for months that the boat had a bad pump.  It seems to me the company is to blame more so than government regulators.