Japan Coast Guard grappling with poachers

Tokyo

THE Japan Coast Guard (JCG) is grappling with the challenge of how to respond to more than 200 fishing boats, thought to be Chinese, that have been poaching ornamental corals in a wide area stretching from the Ogasawara Islands to the southern Izu Islands.

The JCG has received a large number of phone calls urging a crackdown on the fishing boats that are alleged to be removing the precious corals. But the number of patrol vessels that the JCG can allocate to the area is limited as patrol vessels must also be despatched to ocean areas near the Senkaku Islands where Chinese government vessels have repeatedly intruded into Japanese territorial waters. The Senkakus are also claimed by China, where they are known as the Diaoyu islands.