Chinese fishing boat capsizes, leaving 39 missing in Indian Ocean

All 39 crew members of a Chinese fishing boat are missing after their vessel capsized in the Indian Ocean.

The crew includes 17 people from both China and Indonesia and five from the Philippines, state-operated CCTV said.

The boat went down at about 3 am local time on Tuesday, the report said. It gave no reason for the sinking.

The Lupenglaiyuanyu No 8 vessel was based in the eastern province of Shandong, and operated by the Penglaiyingyu Company.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Qiang have ordered Chinese diplomats abroad, as well as the agriculture and transportation ministries, to assist in the search for survivors.

China is believed to operate the world’s largest fishing fleet.

Many vessels stay at sea for months at a time, supported by Chinese state maritime security agencies and a broad network of support vessels.

Chinese squid fishing ships have been documented using wide nets to illegally catch already overfished tuna as part of a surge in unregulated activity in the Indian Ocean, a 2021 report by a Norway-based watchdog group said.

The US Coast Guard was involved in a dangerous confrontation with Chinese vessels not far from Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands last year during a mission to inspect the vessels for any signs of illegal, unreported, or unregulated fishing.

Recovery efforts are underway in Myanmar and Bangladesh after a powerful cyclone smashed into their coastlines, causing widespread destruction and at least 21 deaths, with hundreds of others believed missing.