Along our route from Kiritimati to American Samoa we met 9 fishing vessels.

In two cases we saw three ships at once. The other cases one or two vessels.

Whenever we saw three vessels at least 2 were very close to each other. When we came closer one ship disappeared towards W. In both cases these ships had the same name and differed on AIS identification data only in the number at the end of the name and the MMSI. (MMSI is worldwide unique identification system; one number on vessel.)

This morning we discussed what we observed and drew following conclusions.

The two ships, which disappeared, are mother ships, which have the task to supply the fishing vessel in this area with fuel & food, spare parts, etc, and take home the catch of the ones really fishing. This is the most efficient way to empty a sea area of it’s fishes, in other words stealing fishes from islands around.

How many of these ships are operating in the area N of Samoa, E of Tokelau, S of the Phoenix Islands, W of the Line Islands, N and NW of the Cook Islands?

If I make the assumption that we saw all ships in a stripe of +- 25 NM along our route, and take the aforementioned sea area as only 1000 NM wide. This leads to 1000 NM / 2 x 25 NM = 20. Thus, 20 x 9 fishing vessels result in 180 Chinese fishing vessel in the above mentioned area.

I leave this as it is for your own thoughts.