China continues its mission to take control of the highly-contested South China Sea area, leaving in its wake some completely destroyed underwater surroundings. In the area near the Filipino military-controlled spot, Chinese sea pokers are reportedly destroying reefs for all the corals and clams they can transport, making the once vibrant coral reefs into a desert under territories claimed by neighboring countries. 

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BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes personally went to the politically contested South China Sea to check on a tip that Chinese fishermen were deliberately killing off reefs near atolls controlled by the Philippines. It was initially thought that the tip was just anti-Chinese rhetoric from a Filipino source. Wingfield-Hayes was shocked at what he found after arriving at the site.

"They had chained their boats to the reef and were revving their engines hard," Wingfield-Hayes wrote. "Clouds of black diesel smoke poured into the air."

The BBC has footage of the environmental looters.

Tension has arose in the South China Sea where China stated its claim anew against neighboring countries. America and Australia have patrolled the area in a bid to dampen China's contentious territorial claims.

At the site, poachers drove the BBC away.

"It was murky and filled with dust and sand. I could just make out a steel propeller spinning in the distance on the end of long shaft, but it was impossible to tell exactly how the destruction was being carried out ... The result was clear, though. Complete devastation," Wingfield-Hayes wrote.
"This place had once been a rich coral ecosystem. Now the sea floor was covered in a thick layer of debris, millions of smashed fragments of coral, white and dead like bits of bone," he explained.

TagsChinese fishermen, BBC News, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, Chinese Fishermen Destroy South China Sea Reefs