Perreault Magazine - 64 -
The Chinese government took the Sea Shepherd complaint very seriously.
Liling Zhao, the director of the Division of Deep Sea Fishing at the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture wrote a letter to Sea Shepherd: “We attached great importance to this case and immediately conducted a detailed and comprehensive investigation.”
After reviewing the case, the Chinese government suspended fishing licenses for all six of the ships in the Fu Yuan Yu fleet, fined the company roughly $300,000 USD for each of the 3 vessels caught in the Indian Ocean and nullified the certification of the three captains of these vessels.
The Steve Irwin returned to Australia and is now leading a coalition effort against plans by BP to do deep water offshore drilling in the Australian Bight.