Peru's second-largest fishing industry, catching the jumbo squid called pota, has been virtually wiped out. Local fishers point to overfishing by an overseas fleet from China that follows the migratory squid up and down the coast.
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00:00Yolanda has been working in this fish market for over five decades, selling the catch of
00:15the day from local fishermen to Lima's residents.
00:18But a once affordable and abundant Peruvian specialty has now all but disappeared from
00:24her stand, a type of jumbo squid called pota.
00:28And she blames the hundreds of Chinese fishing ships trawling off the coast of Peru.
00:34Before, the pota cost 50 cents a kilo, then it went up to 1.50 soles, then 2 soles, and
00:43when the Chinese came, they practically depraved the pota and took it away.
00:51801, Wangshan 801, this is a ship from the Naval Prefecture of Argentina, stop your machines,
00:57stop your machines.
00:58Foreign fishing fleets have been encroaching South America for the past two decades.
01:03Following the migratory jumbo squid that travels up and down the western coast, this year has
01:09seen the most ships on record, with China at the lead.
01:13And their effect on the industry has been devastating.
01:33In the past year, an estimated 700 industrial-sized Chinese ships have been spotted off Peru's
01:42coast, using bright lights to attract the squid at night, hauling in some 500,000 tons
01:49annually, leaving little for Peru's fishers.
01:53China has the largest overseas fishing fleet in the world, and Peru's smaller fishing
01:57communities use boats like these that just can't keep up.
02:00China's fleet has been tracked to just 200 nautical miles off the coast of Peru, sitting
02:04just outside the country's international waters.
02:08To address the problem, Peru's government has asked the international fleets to use
02:12location tracking.
02:14But according to a local NGO that tracks these fleets via nocturnal satellite imagery, they've
02:20seen China's fishing ships on the maritime border do the opposite.
02:31But the accusations against China's overseas fleet are more than just illegal fishing.
02:47Many cases of abuse have been documented aboard the vessels, including dire living conditions
02:53for workers, confiscated passports, debt-trapping contracts, and physical beatings.
03:00The vessels are dark places.
03:03The sort of thousand-mile stay are the sort of indicators of extended stays in solitary
03:11confinement.
03:12You know, the sort of paleness and unhealthiness of the men's physique and their skin tone
03:17and their teeth just shows, but just also their demeanor shows that they're crushed.
03:23Peru estimates this year's catch of pota will be less than half their usual, a devastating
03:28blow to a once-thriving industry and the local fishers who depend on it for their survival.
03:35They fear that without action, pota could disappear from Peru's waters for good.
03:41Scott Huang and Harrell Hughes for Taiwan Plus.