Atlantic naval territory of Guinea-Bissau. After a day’s voyage, the ship has reached an operational region. The sailors are shoring the anchor and preparing to fish. This distant water fishing ship uses a cantilever sheet trawl, which catches marine life indiscriminately.

The depletion of China’s domestic fishery resources, which resulted from irresponsible fishing activities in China’s coastal water and poor fishery management, has forced Chinese fishing vessels to travel over tens of thousands miles to find fish in other fishing grounds like the one near West Africa. However, if irresponsible fishing activities are travelling together with the Chinese distant fishing industry and a good regional fisheries management body is still absent, the tragedy that happened in China’s coastal water might be duplicated to other fishing grounds wherever Chinese fishing fleets appear. 

2016年7月22日，大西洋几内亚比绍海域。渔船经过一天的航行到达作业区域，船员们正在收锚，准备开始捕鱼。这是一艘悬臂单拖网远洋渔船，捕鱼作业时船身两边会各伸出一个悬臂，渔网就通过这两个悬臂挂在渔船身后。这种拖网捕鱼没有特定的目标，会将海中的各种生物都捕捞上来，船员们全天24小时轮班工作，每2-3小时收网一次，收网后进行清理和分拣。几内亚比绍是全球20个最贫穷国家之一，人均收入很低，农业和渔业是其主要经济支柱。