<story><title>How China’s Expanding Fishing Fleet Is Depleting the World’s Oceans</title><url>https://e360.yale.edu/features/how-chinas-expanding-fishing-fleet-is-depleting-worlds-oceans</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>evancox100</author><text>Anyone else catch this? First:&lt;p&gt;“The Chinese government says its distant-water fishing fleet, or those vessels that travel far from China’s coast, numbers roughly 2,600, but other research, such as this study by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), puts this number closer to 17,000”.&lt;p&gt;Several paragraphs later:&lt;p&gt;“More recently, the Chinese government has stopped calling for an expansion of its distant-water fishing fleet and released a five-year plan in 2017 that restricts the total number of offshore fishing vessels to under 3,000 by 2021.“&lt;p&gt;Why would you need to announce a plan to reduce your fleet to below 3,000 if it’s only “officially“ at 2,700? Is this a case of inconsistent propaganda?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>yorwba</author><text>According to the 13th Five-Year Plan for the National Fishing Industry &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.moa.gov.cn&amp;#x2F;nybgb&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;derq&amp;#x2F;201712&amp;#x2F;t20171227_6131208.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.moa.gov.cn&amp;#x2F;nybgb&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;derq&amp;#x2F;201712&amp;#x2F;t20171227_61312...&lt;/a&gt; China had 65398 sea-going fishing boats with a length of at least 12 meters in 2015 and planned to reduce that number to 57095 in 2020. The number of distant-water fishing vessels is given as 2512 in 2015, but I can&amp;#x27;t find anything to substantiate the claim that it&amp;#x27;s supposed to be limited to at most 3000 by 2021 (though I didn&amp;#x27;t read the whole plan, so maybe I missed it). EDIT: Turns out I should have looked at the five-year plan for distant-water fishing specifically, which does say that the number of vessels should be stabilized below 3000 by 2020 and also mentions that at the end of 2016, there were close to 2900 either already deployed or under construction &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.moa.gov.cn&amp;#x2F;gk&amp;#x2F;ghjh_1&amp;#x2F;201712&amp;#x2F;t20171227_6128624.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.moa.gov.cn&amp;#x2F;gk&amp;#x2F;ghjh_1&amp;#x2F;201712&amp;#x2F;t20171227_6128624.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Those 17000 vessels estimated by the ODI are likely not ships whose existence the Chinese government denies, but instead ships that are not classified as part of the distant-water fishing fleet even though they do venture far off the coast.</text></comment>
<story><title>How China’s Expanding Fishing Fleet Is Depleting the World’s Oceans</title><url>https://e360.yale.edu/features/how-chinas-expanding-fishing-fleet-is-depleting-worlds-oceans</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>evancox100</author><text>Anyone else catch this? First:&lt;p&gt;“The Chinese government says its distant-water fishing fleet, or those vessels that travel far from China’s coast, numbers roughly 2,600, but other research, such as this study by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), puts this number closer to 17,000”.&lt;p&gt;Several paragraphs later:&lt;p&gt;“More recently, the Chinese government has stopped calling for an expansion of its distant-water fishing fleet and released a five-year plan in 2017 that restricts the total number of offshore fishing vessels to under 3,000 by 2021.“&lt;p&gt;Why would you need to announce a plan to reduce your fleet to below 3,000 if it’s only “officially“ at 2,700? Is this a case of inconsistent propaganda?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>barnesto</author><text>same reason you would lie about the total amount of vessels in the first place.&lt;p&gt;here are 1&amp;#x2F;10 of the Chinese fishing fleet - 1&amp;#x2F;10! just outside of the Galapagos Islands. the Chinese say they have 2,600 vessels - weird how exactly 260 of those are just off the coast of a UNESCO World Heritage site fishing illegally. yes, the boatrs in international waters, but their fishing lines aren&amp;#x27;t.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.forbes.com&amp;#x2F;sites&amp;#x2F;ariellasimke&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;09&amp;#x2F;over-200-chinese-fishing-vessels-are-dangerously-close-to-galpagos-marine-reserve&amp;#x2F;#34ed66fc5eec&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.forbes.com&amp;#x2F;sites&amp;#x2F;ariellasimke&amp;#x2F;2020&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;09&amp;#x2F;over-20...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;it&amp;#x27;s not &amp;quot;inconsistent propaganda&amp;quot; it&amp;#x27;s under-reporting and outright lying, which is par for the course when it comes to the CCP.</text></comment>