Chinese ship caught with banned shark fins in Pacific Ocean

Kiribati, a tiny Pacific neighbor to Hawaii that has grown ties with Beijing, detained a Chinese vessel this month for illegally harvesting shark fins, its maritime police told AFP. The practice of cutting fins off live sharks and throwing the carcasses back into the sea is banned in much of the Pacific Ocean, but persists due to demand in East and Southeast Asia. The Chinese ship was among four vessels detained in a surveillance crackdown by 11 Pacific island nations between Aug. 3 to Aug. 14, assisted by the U.S. Coast Guard in some areas and an Australian military aircraft. Kiribati, however, operates its own patrol boat. The vessel was licensed to travel through Kiribati's waters but was detained by the maritime police after inspectors found shark fins on board, commander Tom Redfern told AFP. "It was escorted back to Christmas Island for further investigation," he said, referring to a large atoll belonging to Kiribati and located south of Hawaii. Kiribati has an exclusive economic zone spanning 1.4 million square miles of ocean, and has drawn interest from Chinese state companies since switching diplomatic ties from Taiwan in 2019. It also hosts Chinese police, a decision the ...