Filipino scientists completed a marine research mission despite “dangerous maneuvers” by a Chinese vessel which attempted to block their boat from reaching a reef in the West Philippine Sea.
Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said the incident happened Thursday near Sandy Cay reef, several kilometers from the Philippine-held Pag-asa island in the contested Spratly Islands, where the two countries have repeatedly clashed in recent months.
He said the scientists were on a boat belonging to the Bureau of Fisheries
and Aquatic Resources which was taking them to the reef when a China Coast Guard vessel crossed its path, coming as close as 100 meters (330 feet) to the boat.
Tarriela said the China Coast Guard vessel sounded a siren for morethan 30 minutes to draw the attention of “Chinese maritime militia” boats in the area.
The China Coast Guard however said Thursday that 34 Filipinos had “illegally” landed on the reef it calls Tiexian Jiao.
Chinese “law enforcement officers” landed there, where they “investigated and handled (the situation),” China Coast Guard spokesperson Gan Yu said in a statement.
“That’s another lie coming from the Chinese coast guard,” Tarriela said on Friday.
“Pag-asa Island generates a territorial sea of 12 nautical miles. This means we have sovereignty over these waters. China’s mere presence there, disrupting our research which we are lawfully conducting, is a violation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS),” he said.
Tarriela said the scientific team spent four hours at two reefs and was able to complete its mission, despite the presence of Chinese vessels and a Chinese military helicopter circling overhead.
The scientists who conducted the research were from the University of the Philippines-Institute of Biology, BFAR, and the Department ofAgriculture-National Fisheries Research and Development Institute (DA-NFRDI), he said.
An initial assessment of Sandy Cay and a second reef near Pag-asa showed that the fish and corals were in a “very poor” state, University of the Philippines marine biologist Jonathan Anticamara later on told a press conference.
Anticamara, who led the scientific mission, said his team observed “unnatural” and “wide” piles of rubble taller than a person at Sandy Cay.
“We don’t know who put it there,” Anticamara said.
Sandy Cay 2 is now covered with dead corals apparently dumped there in what appears to be an attempt to reclaim the area.
“Many of these piles of rubble are not the same as those underwater, and we need further observation in the laboratory. The rubble from thedeep is covered in algae, but the exposed [rubble] is very white, gray corals,” Anticamara said.
Some of the countries with overlapping claims to the Spratlys, including China and Vietnam, have turned reefs into artificial islands where they have built ports, airstrips and military facilities.
China’s land reclamation has outstripped that of other claimants, according to the US-based Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI).
AMTI estimates China has carried out “unprecedented dredging and artificial island-building in the Spratlys” since 2013, creating about 1,300 hectares (3,200 acres) of new land. With AFP