The Criminal Jurisdiction and Applicable Law concerning the Fu Yuan Yu Leng 999 Case

On 13 August 2017, a Chinese-flagged carrier vessel, Fu Yuan Yu Leng 999, entered the Galapagos Marine Reserve (gmr) without giving appropriate notice, on the captain’s explanation that he entered the area to shelter the vessel from strong winds. Ecuadorian naval aircraft and a coastguard ship began to pursue the vessel from the internal waters and it was intercepted within the territorial sea. This area belongs to the new marine sanctuary of the gmr, where high levels of protection are implemented, and all fishing activities are prohibited. This incident reflects that, as the world’s largest distant-water fisheries (dwf) nation, much more needs to be done by China to crack down on illegal, unreported and unregulated (iuu) fishing and to promote the orderly development of dwf.