MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippines blamed Chinese fishermen on Monday for a massive loss of giant clams in a disputed shoal controlled by China’s coast guard in the South China Sea and urged an international inquiry into the amount of environmental damage in the area. The Philippine coast guard presented surveillance photographs of Chinese fishermen harvesting large numbers of giant clams for a number of years in a lagoon at Scarborough Shoal, but said signs of such activities stopped in March 2019. Parts of the surrounding coral appeared to be badly scarred, in what the coast guard said was apparently a futile search by the Chinese for more clams. The lagoon is a prominent fishing area which Filipinos call Bajo de Masinloc and the Chinese calll Huangyan Dao off the northwestern Philippines. “Those were the last remaining giant clams that we saw in Bajo de Masinloc,” Philippine coast guard spokesperson Commodore Jay Tarriela said at a news conference. |
I lost everything I owned in a storage unit fire where I stored my possessions after a breakWWII bomb found in garden in UK city taken out to seaAustralian pilot kidnapped in Papua New Guinea's highlandsPrince William's supporters reveal what he's really like behind the scenesSigns of sharp wit! These funny notices left customers in fits of laughterEmma Hayes blasts Jonas Eidevall's 'male aggression' after heated postInside Harry Kane's family life with devoted wife Katie Goodland after the couple's car crash scareI'm a gardening expertFeeble, sophomoric and paperCamilla wore very rare brooch to Easter Sunday service in touching nod to her mother