US sanctions China-based fishing firms over rights abuses

The US Treasury Department on Friday announced sanctions against China-based fishing firms Dalian Ocean Fishing Co and Pingtan Marine Enterprise, along with affiliated entities, over alleged human rights abuses.

This marks the first time the Treasury Department has designated an entity listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange, Pingtan Marine, it said in a statement.

"Treasury condemns the practices of those sanctioned today, which often involve the abuse of human rights, undermine fundamental labor and environmental standards, and harm the economic prospects of local populations in the Indo-Pacific," Treasury Under Secretary Brian Nelson said.

The sanctions were part of the Treasury Department's actions against Dalian Ocean's chairman Li Zhenyu and Pingtan Marine's founder Xinrong Zhuo, along with the network of entities they control.

"Additionally, this action identifies 157 People's Republic of China (PRC) flagged fishing vessels in which these entities have an interest," the statement said.

In announcing the latest penalties, US officials cited an example in which five crew members of Dalian Ocean Fishing Co died after 18-hour workdays on average and 13 months without a port visit in recent years.

"Subsequent investigation found that similar abuses occurred across (the firm's) fleet, with widespread reports of physical assault, malnutrition, overwork, withheld pay, and five more crew member deaths," the statement said.

Similarly, crew members of vessels under Pingtan Marine were said to undergo overwork and report incidents of "physical violence and forced labor," the Department said.

It added that Pingtan Marine's subsidiary has been implicated in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, and other illicit activity in Indonesia, East Timor and Ecuador.

Entities owned directly or indirectly by the pair are also barred.

The sanctions were imposed under the Magnitsky act, which targets perpetrators of human rights abuse and corruption.

In 2021, the US customs agency also announced it would block imports of products from China's Dalian Ocean Fishing Co over alleged use of forced labor and abuse of workers on its tuna vessels.

Human activity playing role in endangering thousands of marine species
Washington DC (UPI) Dec 9, 2021 - Human activity including illegal fishing and pollution, along with climate change and disease, are threatening tens of thousands of marine species around the world with more than 42,000 facing extinction, according to a report released Friday by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The IUNC's Red List of Threatened Species said the populations of dugongs -- large herbivorous marine mammals -- and 44% of all abalone shellfish species are the latest animals threatened with extinction.

The organization said the pillar coral, found in the western Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, also has deteriorated to the "critically endangered" list due "to accumulated pressures."

"Today's IUCN Red List update reveals a perfect storm of unsustainable human activity decimating marine life around the globe," Bruno Oberle, IUCN's director general, said in a statement.

"As the world looks to the ongoing U.N. biodiversity conference to set the course for nature recovery, we simply cannot afford to fail. We urgently need to address the linked climate and biodiversity crises, with profound changes to our economic systems, or we risk losing the crucial benefit the oceans provide us with."

The Red List now includes 150,388 species, of which 42,108 are threatened with extinction. More than 1,550 of the 17,903 marine animals and plants assessed are at risk of extinction, with climate change impacting at least 41% of threatened marine species, the report said.

The impact, the report said, will affect the global economy. Abalone species are sold as some of the world's most expensive seafood. The IUCN said unsustainable extraction and poaching primary threats compounded by climate change, disease and pollution are dramatically limiting the species.

"Twenty of the world's 54 abalone species are now threatened with extinction," the report said. "In South Africa, poaching by criminal networks, many connected to the international drugs trade, have devastated populations of the endangered perlemoen abalone.

"Increasingly frequent and severe marine heatwaves have caused mass mortalities, killing 99% of Roe's abalones in its most northerly reaches of Western Australia in 2011."

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