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.
College baseball notebook: Conference tournaments to decide NCAA automatic bids and many at
In Russia's Far East, a new heavy
Payton Pritchard scores a career
SpaceX's loses mega rocket near end of test flight
Movie Review: Bill Nighy, Michael Ward shine in Netflix’s Homeless World Cup crowd
Bakery outlets close across New England and New York
Posthumous memoir by Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to be published Oct. 22
Saudi Arabia is going to sponsor the WTA women's tennis rankings under a new partnership
JPMorgan Chase CEO warns about inflation, political polarization, wars
'The Apprentice,' about a young Donald Trump, premieres in Cannes
Got kids? Here's what to know about filing your 2023 taxes