Cina's illegal fishing and "dark Shipping" next point of conflict with US

 

Quad team up to track ‘dark shipping’ and illegal fishing in the Indo-Pacific

• Security pact members to pool data to monitor activity in their waters
• China says it has always met its international obligations and warns others not to make unfounded accusations

The US-led Quad group will launch a new initiative to track “dark shipping” and monitor illegal fishing in the Indo-Pacific, as the four countries step up efforts to counter China’s influence in the region.

The White House said on Tuesday that the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness aimed to build “a faster, wider, and more accurate maritime picture of near-real-time activities in partners’ waters”.

Over the next five years, the Quad members – the United States, Japan, Australia and India – will share unclassified data gathered by a combination of Automatic Identification System signals from ships and radio-frequency technologies.

 "Dark ships" are vessels with their Automatic Identification System (AIS) - a transponder system - switched off so as not to be detectable. This crucial maritime pact will enhance the security apparatus of the Indo-Pacific region.