Philippines convicts 9 Chinese fishermen of illegal fishing
AP reported that a Philippine court convicted nine Chinese fishermen for illegally catching hundreds of rare giant sea turtles at Half Moon Shoal in the South China Sea and fined each of them nearly $103,000, but did not sentence them to prison.
The fishermen were arrested in May at Crescent Reef while their boat and 555 sea turtles on board were also seized.
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| Chinese fishing boat. (Source: AFP/VNA) |
The incident sparked a new dispute between the two Asian neighbors in the complex South China Sea region.
Judge Ambrosio de Luna of the Palawan provincial court declared the Chinese fishermen had violated Philippine fishing regulations, ordering them to pay a fine of 100,000 USD each for poaching in Philippine waters and 120,000 pesos ($2,666) each for hunting wildlife./.
According to VNA
