Correspondence
Email sent to two contact addresses for Shandong Bodelong Group.
The email said: "I’m writing to you in light of our latest investigation, which concerns abuses in the Chinese squid fishing industry. Our investigation has found that Bodelong Group vessels have fished illegally in the South Atlantic and the South Pacific Oceans, and have disembarked at least two dead deckhands in the Port of Montevideo, in 2016 and 2019. One vessel also disembarked an ill deckhand in Montevideo in 2020 who had symptoms of beriberi, a sign of severe neglect. Does Shandong Bodelong Group have any comment or statement to make in light of this email? Please reply by close of business on August 4, 2023."
The Outlaw Ocean Project emailed two contact addresses for Shandong Bodelong Group: "We’re contacting you now regarding our research on the practice of ‘flagging in’, whereby fishing vessels owned by companies in one country are flagged to another country in order to access that second country’s waters. Records indicate that Shandong Bodelong Group is the beneficial owner of dozens of vessels which are flagged to Argentina and Ghana.
The Shandong Bodelong Group is also the parent company of an Argentine-flagged ship called the Lu Qing Yuan Yu 280. In 2020, the Lu Qing Yuan Yu 280 dumped overboard thousands of pounds of fish from Argentine waters, according to footage shared by an Argentine engineer from the ship who recorded the incident on his cell phone. He said the captain had ordered the dumping to make space for new catch in the ship’s freezer. We understand that after learning of his footage, Patagonia Fishing, the local company that operates the Lu Qing Yuan Yu 280, fired him.
Separately, the non-governmental organization Environmental Justice Foundation has reported that Shandong Bodelong Group vessels were involved in 10 cases of illegal fishing between 2015 and 2019.
We have the following questions for Shandong Bodelong Group:
While we understand that you may not be aware of the above information, does Shandong Bodelong Group have any comment to make in response to this email?
Does the Shandong Bodelong Group have any process for investigating complaints of illegal fishing or illegal fish dumping made against its vessels? What penalties, if any, are imposed by Shandong Bodelong Group for such actions?
We are not indicating explicitly or implicitly that flagging-in is illegal, we are just taking a look at the issue of flagging-in globally. Can Shandong Bodelong Group confirm that it is the beneficial owner of fishing vessels which are flagged to Argentina and to Ghana?
Please let us know your responses to the above questions by close of business on July 10, 2024, noting that all interactions remain on record."