A fishing vessel with 39 sailors onboard, including Chinese, Indonesian and Filipino crew members, capsized in the Indian Ocean. The incident occurred south of the Maldives, and the missing persons have not been found yet. Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered a search and rescue operation. Two commercial vessels have been deployed to help with the operation. The capsized vessel is owned by Penglai Jinglu Fishery Company, one of China’s major state-run fishing firms.
The vessel was authorised to fish for neon flying squid and Pacific saury, according to the North Pacific Fisheries Commission. It left Cape Town in South Africa on May 5 and was last located on May 10 southeast of Reunion, a tiny French island in the Indian Ocean. Chinese Premier Li Qiang has called for authorities to bolster safety procedures and oversight of fishing operations.
China has the world’s largest distant-water fishing fleet. Estimates of its size vary widely. Chinese fishermen have increasingly sailed further afield as fish stocks at home deplete, becoming entangled in a growing number of maritime disputes and accidents. In 2019, Manila accused a Chinese vessel of ramming a Philippine boat in the disputed South China Sea, causing it to sink and putting the lives of nearly a dozen crew members at risk.
