City at Sea: Giant Squid Fleet Plunders Unprotected Ocean

A massive fishing fleet, large enough to be seen from space, is operating just outside Argentina's waters. It is creating what officials call a "serious environmental problem." The fleet gathers every year at a place called Mile 201. This is a strip of international ocean in the South Atlantic. It lies beyond Argentina's maritime border and has little government control. For five or six months, hundreds of large industrial ships fish there. They mostly come from Asian countries, including China. This group is known as the "distant-water fishing fleet." In Buenos Aires, the Argentinian coast guard tracks the ships on screens. Commander Mauricio López says the foreign fleet targets the area's rich marine life. From space, the huge collection of vessels looks like a floating city.