Giant squid was once an abundant marine resource and a cheap source of protein in Peru. The story is long, but easy to understand. Until the end of last year, Peru was the country that landed the largest amount of this resource in the world. Behind it, however, was China. Where are the Chinese fishing? Mainly off the coast of South America.

What is happening right now in Peru should set off an alarm bell for the rest of the continent. The Peruvian navy has officially placed itself at the feet of China’s commercial interests. Instead of protecting its country’s marine resources, it decided to align itself with the communist regime’s embassy to absolve its ships, known worldwide for plundering the oceans without any qualms, from any blame.

Testimonies of fishermen

Former Peruvian fishermen say that 20 years ago the fleet that came to catch squid was actually Korean. The method was very similar to what is seen now.

Satellite images show a perpetual patch of foreign vessels positioned at the edge of the 200 nautical miles that correspond to Peru. An area that borders international waters. In theory, they fish just outside the limit, but all seafarers know that this is not the case.

Today, Peruvian fishermen are piling up complaints against Chinese boats for entering the 200-mile zone, turning on their fishing lights and throwing out their lines to catch squid. It is an absolutely illegal activity. According to these sources, the Koreans were “babysitters” alongside the Chinese fleet. Their operation was small compared to that of the communist country and the amount of squid they caught did not affect the local fishing.

But things have changed. Today, China is leaving Peru without squid. A kilo of this product, which used to cost four soles, has in recent months reached more than 24 soles. This is a blow to the poorest families, because squid was a cheap source of protein on the Peruvian table. But almost no one can afford it anymore. It is more expensive than chicken.

And it’s all because of scarcity. It hasn’t been available in the markets for months. On social media, there are plenty of videos of fishermen complaining because they have been forced to collect scallops to survive, since there are no squid to fish. They have been left without work.

Through Latin American waters

Experts from Calamasur are very concerned about the survival of the resource on this side of the continent. It is the Committee for the Sustainable Management of the Giant Squid in the South Pacific, which is made up of fishermen from Chile, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru. But beware: Chinese boats do not only operate in the Pacific. When the season ends here, they turn around through the Strait of Magellan to the other side of America. And there they fish off the waters of Argentina and Uruguay.

In fact, an investigation published in La Contra found that the Hong Pu 16 ship had been detected by the Argentine Navy fishing illegally in its waters before entering the Peruvian Navy shipyards, according to the records of the maritime journalists’ portal, The Outlaw Ocean Project. There, they intervened and took it under escort to the port of Bahía Blanca.

At the feet of China

By tracking satellite images, the investigation locates the entry of at least a dozen Chinese ships to the shipyards of the Industrial Services of the Navy (SIMA). It is the public company that is in charge of maintaining the ships. The Chinese ships that it receives, which pay very well, are part of the fleet that illegally takes squid out of Peruvian waters.

The Peruvian Navy is not only incapable of policing its 200 miles of land from foreign incursions. It also provides maintenance services to the ships that make up the Chinese fleet. And it has decided to defend its interests, both before the Congress of the Republic and before public opinion. At the beginning of September, representatives of the Navy went to Congress in Peru to ask that no further demands be approved for Chinese ships. They said that further demands could be considered as “bureaucratic barriers.”

In mid-September, the director of the Navy’s Directorate of Captaincies and Coast Guard (Dicapi), Rodolfo Sablich, traveled to China to sign a memorandum of friendship with the Chinese coast guard. Relations between the Peruvian Navy and the Communist Party seem to be going from strength to strength. So much so that, in the face of the national scandal unleashed by the increase in squid prices and the association with the Chinese fleet, the Navy publicly assured that no Chinese boat fishes illegally in Peruvian waters.

On October 1, the Chinese ambassador to Peru gave an interview—one of the few he has given—to the newspaper Gestión and said exactly the same thing: that there is no illegal fishing by his country’s fleet and that what the fishermen are reporting is a product of his imagination. It is almost as if a joint response had been coordinated between two trading partners. Are they watching each other’s backs?

Official speech

Both the Navy and the Chinese Embassy claim the same thing: that the squid shortage is due only to the El Niño phenomenon. This year’s El Niño has been much weaker than in previous years. And, furthermore, fishermen wonder why it would only affect squid fishing, when other strategic resources – such as anchovy – are registering healthy landing figures.

In addition, La Contra’s investigation reveals a long list of irregularities detected in the Chinese fleet operating off the coast of Peru. For example, ships turn off their anti-collision radars just when they are approaching 200 miles. Also, when they leave Peruvian ports, they are observed moving at less than two knots, which is known throughout the world as fishing speed. Why is illegal Chinese fishing discovered in Argentina and not in Peru? Is it just here that they decided to respect navigation rules?

Despite strong evidence that the Chinese fleet is responsible for illegally depleting the resource, the Peruvian navy has decided to defend it. Its ships pay it huge sums for maintenance every year. Meanwhile, local fishermen demand that someone defend them.

_{*Article originally published in Diálogo Político. Original article in Spanish. Translation performed by artificial intelligence, according to Diálogo Político.}