The seizure this month of a Chinese vessel carrying 300 tons of sharks and other fish inside Ecuador’s Galápagos Marine Reserve has rekindled conservationists’ complaints about poaching of marine species despite territorial limits and protection zones. The seizure occurred on Aug. 13, when the Ecuadorian Navy stopped and boarded the Fu Yuan Yu Leng 999, a 100-meter (328-foot) transshipment vessel well inside the reserve, which surrounds Ecuador’s Galápagos Islands and within which commercial fishing is prohibited. An Ecuadorian court on San Cristóbal, one of the Galápagos islands, weighed in on Aug. 24, sentencing the vessel’s captain to four years in prison, three officers to three years each and 16 crew members to one year each. The court also ordered a US$5.9 million... [Log in to read more]
