Why Are Chinese Fishermen Destroying Coral Reefs in the South China Sea?

Good stewardship typically accompanies a sense of ownership – but greed can interfere and claims over ocean commons are difficult to enforce. A BBC News report by Rupert Wingfield-Hayes backed up claims from Filipino politicians, suggesting “that Chinese fishermen were deliberately destroying reefs near a group of Philippine-controlled atolls in the Spratly Islands.” The reporter describes reefs devastated by propellers, and observed fishermen targeting 1-meter-long clams that live under the reefs, some that could be more than a hundred years old. In recent years, the Philippines has charged Chinese fishermen with poaching endangered species while China counters that its sovereignty has been violated. Wingfield-Hayes concludes, ‘However shocking the reef plundering I witnessed, it is as nothing compared to the environmental destruction wrought by China's massive island building programme nearby.” The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled in October that it has jurisdiction to hear claims from the Philippines for disputed area of the South China Sea. – YaleGlobal