About 200 poaching boat of “Red Coral” comes and stealing jewelry coral

Hundreds of fishing boats with Chinese markings have been spotted  near islands stretching thousands of kilometers south of Tokyo over the past few months. Illegal coral harvesting is occurring in the subtropical, ecologically diverse Ogasawara and Bonin islands that make up a remote, sparsely populated archipelago that lies about 1,000 kilometers south Tokyo.

It’s thought the boats are illegally harvesting red coral, which can be sold for thousands of dollars per kilogram.