A Key Food Source Collapsed Off West Africa’s Coast as Chinese Ships Ground the Species Into Fishmeal

Lin is also the chairman and minority shareholder of a Chinese company that owns the Tian Yi He 6, named Weihai Tianyihe Marine Biotechnology Company Limited. 

Three years before the 147-meter ship traveled to Guinea-Bissau, authorities in the Chinese coastal city of Weihai suspended that company’s fishmeal operations. The actions were due to the company causing “excessive pollution,” as well as “not implementing mitigation measures and producing illegally,” according to a 2016 letter by the local government agency responsible for environmental protection.

In August 2020, the company’s assets were frozen by a Chinese court over unpaid debts totaling almost $4.6 million. In July 2023, Weihai Tianyihe Marine Biotechnology was put into bankruptcy liquidation. The following year, the order was extended to its subsidiaries, which had accumulated an additional $16.6 million in debt and unpaid taxes.

It is unclear how the Tian Yi He 6 continues to operate despite the order to liquidate the assets of its owner, Weihai Tianyihe Marine Biotechnology. The liquidator appointed by the court did not respond to requests for comment.

The 2020 court document lists Lin Zhigao as chair of Weihai Tianyihe Marine Biotechnology and owner of 13 percent of the shares. In May 2020, Chinese courts froze his assets over an unpaid $2 million debt, and issued a civil detention order for him.

A worker at Lin Zhigao’s office in downtown Bissau told reporters in July that Lin Zhigao was in Sierra Leone. OCCRP managed to reach him via WhatsApp, and he said the Chinese court and Weihai Tianyihe Marine Biotechnology had “reached a settlement agreement.” He did not respond to further questions. 

Meanwhile, the fishmeal factory ship that arrived in Guinea-Bissau in 2024, the Hua Xin 17, was part-owned by a man named Zheng Liyong. According to the most recent available records from January 2026, he holds 15 percent of the Hong Kong company that owns the vessel, Bishaohuaxin Co Ltd.

Zheng Liyong also owns two companies that operate the factory ships and the six Turkish fishing vessels that supplied them with fish, according to corporate records from Guinea-Bissau.

Contacted by OCCRP, Zheng Liyong said he no longer owned part of Bishaohuaxin, having had “some disagreements” with the other shareholders who are “all in China.”

“Yes, I used to be 15 (percent), but I’ve left the company now,” he said. 

Bishaohuaxin did not respond to a request for comment. 

‘Deeply Worrying Trend’

The first of the six Turkish fishing vessels that supplied the floating fishmeal factories reached Guinea-Bissau’s waters in November 2019, just 11 days after the arrival of fishmeal ship Tian Yi He 6. 

The remaining five Turkish fishing boats joined in 2023 and 2024. 

The fleet had previously operated in Mauritania, further north along the West African coast, where 44 land-based fishmeal factories had been built by 2021.

Mauritania has since imposed strict measures on the fishmeal industry due to overfishing concerns, with production more than halved since its peak in 2020, and most of the factories shut down. 

The impact that the floating factories will have in Sierra Leone remains to be seen. But OCCRP compiled export data that helps illustrate the effect on fish stocks in Guinea-Bissau. 

Prior to Tian Yi He 6’s arrival in 2019, there was no fishmeal production in Guinea-Bissau. Then, in 2020, starting with a shipment of 200 tons of fishmeal valued at $70,000 sent to Vietnam in April 2020 by Bissau Wang Sheng Fisheries Development Co SARL, the country’s exports surged.