PHOTOS: Illegal Blasting Decimates Fish in Shenzhen Bay

By Gary Bailer, June 9, 2017

Illegal blast fishing is suspected to be the cause of a disheartening discovery in Shenzhen’s Dashen Bay of Dapeng New District: a roughly 250-square-meter area of ocean floor densely covered in fish carcasses.

The dead sea creatures were found by three diving enthusiasts on June 8, which, in a depressing coincidence, is World Oceans Day. The divers first began noticing dead fish on the ocean’s surface after arriving at their Dashen Bay dive site, where the water is "five or six meters deep," according to Southern Metropolis Daily.

"I didn't pay too much attention at that time,” one of the divers told a reporter, “I thought it was because of a red tide." It wasn’t until the aquatic adventurers descended to the ocean floor that they realized the extent of the die-off.

"Those fish had already started decomposing. They were slowly drifting to the surface of the ocean."

When the divers surfaced they immediately notified the Dapeng New District Coral Conservation Volunteers Association, which forwarded the hypothesis that blast fishing is responsible.

According to local fisherman who live near the affected waters, eight “high horsepower” vessels, including some sightseeing boats, were in Dongshen Bay past 10pm on June 7 to engage in illegal fishing. As of publication time, fisheries authorities were still searching for clues to help track down the culprits.