www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world-latin-america-53562439
Ecuador is on alert due to the appearance of a huge fleet of mostly Chinese-flagged fishing vessels off its Galapagos Islands.
Patrols are trying to ensure the fleet - which is made up of around 260 vessels - does not enter the delicate eco-system from international waters.
Chinese vessels travel to the region each year in search of marine species.
In 2017, a Chinese vessel was caught in the marine reserve with 300 tonnes of wildlife, most of it sharks.
"We are on alert, [conducting] surveillance, patrolling to avoid an incident such as what happened in 2017," Ecuadorean Defence Minister Oswaldo Jarrin told reporters.
There was no immediate comment from the Chinese authorities when contacted by BBC News.
Ecuador 'allows US military planes to use Galapagos island airfield'
The ex-mayor of Quito, Roque Sevilla, told The Guardian that a "protection strategy" was being designed for the islands.
"Unchecked Chinese fishing just on the edge of the protected zone is ruining Ecuador's efforts to protect marine life in the Galápagos," he said.
Image copyrightEPAOswaldo Jarrin gives a press conference
Image captionDefence Minister Oswaldo Jarrin says the country is on alert
President Lenin Moreno has said that Ecuador will hold consultations with other Latin American countries with a coastline on the Pacific - Colombia, Peru, Chile, Panama and Costa Rica - in order to form a joint regional position concerning the "threat".
"Because of that [natural] wealth in that area, we suffer immense pressure from international fishing fleets," he was reported as saying in El Universo newspaper.
The Galapagos Marine Reserve boasts large numbers of shark species, including endangered whale and hammerheads.
The Galapagos Islands are a Unesco World Heritage site renowned worldwide for their unique array of plants and wildlife.
Charles Darwin made observations critical to his theory of evolution on the islands.
Some news outlets are playing it up as state sanctioned and driven by China's fear of covid induced food shortages. I think that's bullshit.
260 fishing vessels represents a small fleet, but only because of their concentration. A city of a million people might support 100 ocean trawlers, and a round the world fishing trip for a seasonal catch you'd convoy up for safety and backup.
Their concentration worries me.
Either all the fishing captains are making the same market value calculation, and this area will be hammered each year until nothing left,
Or most of the normal catch is already overfished and travelling this far is the only way to get to a relatively high yield area, until that too collapses under the strain.
If every fishery collapse increases boat concentration on the remainder, we're going to see exponential collapse across every fishing site, almost at once.
