Deep Blue Scars: Environmental Threats to the South China Sea
features.csis.org
A hidden crisis is unfolding in the South China Sea. As claimants maneuver to strengthen their control over disputed waters, the marine environment has suffered untold damage from overfishing, dredging, and giant clam harvesting.

A hidden crisis is unfolding across the South China Sea. While regional powers work to strengthen their claims to disputed waters and territories there, the marine environment in which they maneuver has been declining to critical levels.

In recent decades, increased fishing, dredging, and land fill, along with giant clam harvesting, have taken a devastating toll on thousands of species found nowhere else on earth.