MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippines blamed Chinese fishermen on Monday for a massive loss of giant clams in a disputed shoal controlled by China’s coast guard in the South China Sea and urged an international inquiry into the amount of environmental damage in the area.
The Philippine coast guard presented surveillance photographs of Chinese fishermen harvesting large numbers of giant clams for a number of years in a lagoon at Scarborough Shoal, but said signs of such activities stopped in March 2019.
Parts of the surrounding coral appeared to be badly scarred, in what the coast guard said was apparently a futile search by the Chinese for more clams. The lagoon is a prominent fishing area which Filipinos call Bajo de Masinloc and the Chinese calll Huangyan Dao off the northwestern Philippines.
“Those were the last remaining giant clams that we saw in Bajo de Masinloc,” Philippine coast guard spokesperson Commodore Jay Tarriela said at a news conference.
Not so Cool Britannia! Noel Gallagher gives damning verdict on Keir Starmer
China cracks down on medical cosmetology violations
NE China's Jilin seeks new growth drivers for rural development with ice
Hongjiannao National Nature Reserve in NW China's Shaanxi, sanctuary for relict gulls
Strictly star Giovanni Pernice's former partner Rose Ayling
Xi Focus: Xi Calls for Striving to Realize Economic Goals in 2023
Xi holds talks with Surinamese president
Iran helicopter crash that killed President Raisi could reverberate across the Middle East
China urges U.S., Japan to stop forming anti